MMZ: Shadowed Grasp of Neo Arcadia
by I Embraced My Darkness
Summary: the sequel of Shadow of GigaCity: Leviathan runs into a dark reploid when she has a chance to end the Resistance. After a brief fight, he demands to meet Copy X. With a new Identity and justice on his teeth, how will this dark reploid shape everything?
1. A New, Old Face

[The original ending of Shadow of GigaCity is the canon for this. Unlike SoGC, this story is not plausible canon of the series, as will be plainly obivous]

1 - A new, old face

"Ciel!" CyberElf Passy yelled as they ran through the rubble, hearing the screams of their comarades dying in the corridirs behind them. "This isn't the place!"

"I know!" Ciel knew the deaths of her friends and fellow soldiers was on her hands now. She continued running towards the place where their sub was docked with the ancient underwater prision. "this was one of the two places he could have been!" If Ciel made it in time, she could perhaps prep the craft in time to allow her and the few living soldiers in her company to live.

"We knew it was a gamble when we took this mission!" A man named Milan tried to ease the guilt obviously shown on the teenaged scientist's face, "it was a 50-50 shot, and we missed!"

"It isn't your fault," Passy seconded as Ciel had to stop for a brief breath.

Slow, confident footsteps ahead of them alerted the human party of the presence of another, unknown party. "Welcome to my domain," A female voice said victoriously, "Dr. Ciel, it's truly a pleasure to be the one to end your pathetic rebellion."

The eyes of the girl went wide as Guardian of the Seas, Ice Goddess, Lady of the Lance, or whatever moniker you prefer, Neo Arcadian General Siren Leviathan, stepped around the corner. "How did you find us so quickly?"

Leviathan pulled her spear from its harness and began to absent-mindedly twirl it. "Simple," she smirked, "we never stopped watching you to begin with."

Ciel knew that no human could ever stand even the shadow of an eyelashes's chance against the S-level fighter before them. After standing a moment, she heard footsteps behind her group, she knew there was no escape. "I suppose we'd all be killed even if we surrender to you."

"Technically that's up to the courts, but I have been given orders to terminate any who threaten the peace of Neo Arcadia... I think it would be more fitting if you went down fighting then as a mere line in the records of the courts. don't you?"

"No," Ciel felt herself trembling as she stood her ground, "I won't allow it to end like this!"

"So..." it was obvious the Guardian was eager for the brownie points of taking down the Resistance, "What's it gonna be?"

"I-I...I..." Ciel collapsed to her knees and began crying. "We were so close!" she sobbed, "We brushed our fingertips on the door that held equality for all! Why couldn't he have been here?"

"Tch!" Leviathan had heard enough, and stopped twirling the weapon and pointed it at the pink-clad human.

Instinctively, the three soldiers jumped between the two women and brought their weapons to bear on the blue armored reploid.

"Useless!" she screamed as she leapt through the air and thrust her weapon at the lead soldier.

a dark-colored blur appeared between the point of the weapon and the human who hadn't even been able to react.

"Who the fuck are you!" Leviathan spat, angered that her moment of victory was interrupted by a purple beam saber catching her spear.

"I don't know," a dark armored reploid replied. He pushed the General back, causing her to stumble. "But no reploid is ever allowed to take a human life. You are clearly Maverick."

"Me? Maverick?" Leviathan paused awkwardly before bursting out laughing so hard that she had to use the shaft of her spear as a support.

"This is no laughing matter!" His green eyes flashed, "You have blatently attempted to violate the First Law of Robotics! Something that's hardwired into all reploid systems!"

"I have been given specific orders from the Courts of Neo Arcadia as well as Master X to eliminate anyone who threatens the peace. Reploid or otherwise."

"Neo Arcadia?"

"Are you new or something?" Leviathan took stock of her opponent, "No. You are ancient, I can see it in your build."

"Ancient?"

"Yeah," she leaned against the spear as if she hadn't a care in the world, "way old school. you even have a core-orb under your vest-armor. I haven't seen any of those since before the Elf Wars."

"Elf Wars? What about the Shinigami Ressurection incident?"

"The what?" Leviathan actually looked at Ciel for an answer.

Ciel turned to look at the largest soldier in the group, "you are the history buff, Kindle..."

"I think he means the GigaCity War. A Reploid named Shinigami ressurected the entire Repliforce V3 and tried to take Giga City as his own in order to gain access to the Force Metals. A combined effort of the GigaCity Defenders and the Maverick Hunters foiled him in the span of two weeks; after incurring the loss of Axl, one of the legendary S-Class Maverick Hunters at the hands of a traitor."

"Axl..." The name sounded familiar and brought a tear to the dark-clad reploid's eye. The half-memory caused him enormous pain.

"look," Leviathan took a battle stance, "as interesting as this is, I really have to kill you so i can get back to my troops."

"Do you have a transport?" He asked one of the soldiers.

"yes, but Leviathan is blocking the way."

"Don't worry about that," the reploid answered, "the moment you see either of us move, run."

As ancient as her opponent was, it was easy for the Guardian to tell he was skilled. Very skilled. She shifted her stance, changing from an offensive stance to a balanced one.

Milan saw the move, and grabbing Ciel by the wrist, he took of running full-tilt.

Leviathan almost moved to stop them, but blocked an attack as the dark one took advantage of the distraction.

"oh," he responded, "you are as good as i thought."

Leviathan was struggling against the strength of the reploid, or so she thought. after he pulled away, she realized that she simply couldn't move. "What the hell is this?"

"ShadowPin," he grinned as he heard the sound of the human's transport undocking and departing.

"Just who are you," she asked, "really?"

"I already told you that I don't know," he responded as he relaxed slightly, showing that he didn't intend to kill the woman who was far too lucid to be a Maverick, she was merely abrasive and under questionable orders.

"Then what do you want?" Siren asked almost nervously.

"You said that you work for X, right?"

"Yes, Master X is the leader of Neo Acadia."

"Take me to him," The dark reploid said as he placed his weapon back on his hip. "I don't know myself. But I DO know him... somehow... he can tell me."


	2. A Copy and a Name

2 - a copy and a name

Leviathan sighed when she and her guest arrived at the Transmission Station of the Neo Acadian Army. She sighed because all three of her brothers stood there, and from the looks on their faces, her failure was already known to them.

"Well," Phantom began, "not only does she return unharmed... She also brings an antiquiated piece of machinery."

"Quiet Phantom," Harpuia silenced his brother, "I'm more interested in an explaination than harrassment."

"No shit," Fefnir affirmed.

"There were some unforseeable complications," she glanced at the dark armored reploid, "which made the capture impossible."

"So you brought a prisoner and didn't think to remove his weapons?" Phantom accused, "tell me sister, have you gone mad?"

Harpuia held out a hand, "if it were so simple, she'd have just Retired him and gave chase to the humans."

"Yes," Leviathan almost felt embarrassed about what she was about to say, "he was able to match me, and even had me at his mercy."

The safeties on Fefnir's cannons, Sodom and Gammhora, clicked off loudly, and he suddenly found a purple blade in his face. Harpuia had seen the move and got his beam daggers out with enough time to have knocked the attack away if his brother had actually been attacked.

"HEY!" a voice called from behind the three male Guardians.

In response to the voice, all four Guardians turned their attention slightly.

"What is going on here?"

"Master X," Harpuia replied, "we were debriefing Leviathan about her failed mission. Then Fefnir released the safeties on his weapons when he heard how skilled a fighter this reploid was."

"Explain yourself Fenir," the blue reploid walked up to his red general, "I will not have you defile the name of justice in such a way as attacking an innocent."

"I just wanted to be ready in case he turned out to be a threat," He defended himself with a voice that suggested he'd hoped the stranger had attacked. "Leviathan said he was on our level."

As the leader of Neo Arcadia turned to look at the dark repliod, a vauge sense of recognition passed over him. "Who are you?"

"I was hoping you could tell me that. I have several broken memories involving you... but none of them had red eyes."

"Master X," Leviathan interjected an explaination, "I found him in the ruins of that ancient all-reploid city. He mentioned the GigaCity War."

"I see," X nodded, "you knew the Original then?"

"Original? You aren't X?"

"Technically, no. But I am a perfect copy. The Original sacrificed himself in order to seal away the Dark Elf."

"He's gone?" This deeply saddened the unknown machine.

"Not really, his body lies in Yggdrasil, acting as the final seal on the cursed CyberElf."

"CyberElf? I've heard of that before... Isn't that some kind of Sigma-Vaccine theory?"

"I can tell you are no Maverick," X seemed confident in the statement, as if his word made it so. "I have business to take care of, will one of you please take him to the Library. I think his curiosity will find more answers there than with us... Leviathan, why don't you do it? He's your guest after all."

"Of course Master X."

"And stranger," X said over his shoulder as he began walking away, "I hope you find your answers."

The three male Guardians gave the newcomer a last look before following after their leader.

"Something is very wrong..."

"Huh?" Leviathan hadn't heard what he'd said.

"Even though he isn't X physically," he explained, "niether is he even close in what I remember about his personality."

Leviathan waited to react, not sure if the stranger was bad-mouthing her master or just observing.

"He's..." taking off his helmet, the reploid shook out his blood-red hair. puting the headpiece against his hip, he finally came up with the description he was searching for, "less seasoned. And it may not be a bad thing, but he seems extremely sure of himself, almost to the point of arrogance."

Leviathan still couldn't tell whether she should deflect the statements or not. either way, she motioned for him to follow her. Leading the way out of the Transmission Station, the blue reploid followed the lead of her guest, removing her own helmet. She pulled the tie from behind her head and allowed her shoulder-length aquamarine hair to freefall, "I hate that feeling, I always feel trapped in my armor." As if to puncuate the statement, her battle armor dissapeared in a brief flash of light. She stood there in an outfit that left her looking distinctly human: a pair of blue denim jeans which looked a size too large for her, a white t-shirt with a large seashell printed on it, a pair of shoes that looked more like slippers, and an unstrapped pair of white bikers' gloves. all in all, she didn't look at all like a warrior, let alone a general.

"What the..." the redhead doubletook, "I never knew anyone could do that."

Flashing a smile at him, Leviathan giggled, "one of the perks of being a Guardian... a personal Transmission system, although it only works within Neo Arcadia. I could just warp us to the Library, but I think you'd probably rather get a chance to see some of this utopia. Plus, I get more time off this way."

"Leviathan-" He was silenced by a hand being held in his face.

Removing her hand, Leviathan winked, "I'm off duty, call me Siren."

"You are a totally different person when you aren't in your armor."

"What's the point in living if you can't let loose and have fun? Right, Stranger?"

"I know I don't remember my name, but we need to figure out something other than 'Stranger' to call me."

"Good point. Hmmm..." Siren took a long, hard look at the reploid before her, hoping for insperation of some sort. She began mumbling different things and shaking her head, deciding they wouldn't be worth suggesting as a name. After about two minutes, she looked right at his face, "what do you think about Noir Shadowhisper?"

"Noir? as in French for black?"

"exactly!" Leviathan realized the lack of creativity in that part, "too bland?"

"maybe... but I like the idea... What do you think of Kuro Shadowhisper?"

The Neo Arcadian Reploid began laughing, "all you did was change languages to Japanese, you might as well have said negro, or something like that!"

"It IS going to be my name."

"Kuro?..." pulling up the jeans that had begun sagging enough to reveal a pair of deep-sea blue panties, Leviathan nodded. "It has my stamp of approval!"

The newly dubbed Kuro Shadowhisper gave a light laugh to the girl's response.


	3. The Railcar

3 - the railcar

From the moment he stepped out of the Transmission Staiton Complex, Kuro was impressed by Neo Arcadia. It remnded him of a city surrounded by the vast waters of the ocean, one where he'd experienced pain, love, hate, fear, and sorrow. He knew that much about his past, but none of the causes of those emotions was in his memories.

"You ok?" Siren asked as they entered a railcar marked 'to library'.

"I'm just trying to remember my past... I only remember a few things: like this sword isn't actually mine, I was the Captain of some civil defense unit, I also vaugely remember X, a young dark-armored reploid, and a red reploid who was usually with them."

The car began moving down the track when Leviathan answered, "That must be Zero and Axl. At least if I remember my history right, that is."

"Zero...Axl..." the names were those he knew he had strong memories of, but he couldn't come up with anything, no matter what parts of his memory circuits he searched.

"Yeah, the legendary S-Class Maverick Hunters."

"And Axl was destroyed by a friend?"

"As i recall, it was one of the strongest fighters of the GigaCity Defenders who went Maverick because of a Shadow Drive."

"A Shadow Drive..." he put a hand on his chest. When Kuro had first woke up a few years ago, he'd run a full diagnostic scan on himself. During the scan, he'd found a device hard-intergrated into his Primary Core Buffer. According to his scans, the device was completely inactive. With nothing in it on his equipment list, he'd been wary as to what it could be, and a Shadow Drive was something that fit the description.

"Hey! what's wrong?" She shook him lightly to bring him out of his thoughts.

"No," Kuro shook his head, "it's nothing..." he lied, "just pulling at the strings of a memory that won't come loose."

Siren walked over to the glass wall of the railcar. She put her hand against it and leaned her forehead to press on the glass as well. "You know, my soul was created from one of the five CyberElves that X's soul seperated into when he sealed the DarkElf. I... I feel like I know you, like I've known you for such a long time... I think that's why I feel so comfortable around you..." She cracked the glass when she punched it, "and why I feel so Goddamn guilty!"

"Guilty?" At this point, Kuro had seen so many different sides of the girl that he wasn't suprised by her behavior.

"You knew THE X. And like me, my brothers were created with one of the CyberElves from him. On rare occasions, we've experienced memories of X's life, as well as shown knowledge of things only he could have known." The warrior turned, almost in tears, "I feel like I should be able to tell you everything! I should know you as well as I know my brothers!"

"Calm down," Kuro tried to ease the turbulant emotions of the young woman, "it's not like you have concious access to his entire memory bank."

After taking a deep breath, Siren realized just how silly she was acting. "I know that... It's just really difficult because, like I said, you feel like a long-time friend."

Kuro smiled and put a hand on her shoulder.

"Hey," Leviathan seemed to pop back to her more playful self, "look out that side. My favorite part is coming up."

Turning to see nothing but a building rushing by, Kuro wondered what she meant. But then they passed the building and a dazzaling view of the sun rising against the ocean behind the city opened up before him. "Wow... This place really does look like a Utopia."

"Doesn't it though?" Leviathan seemed swooned by the view.

"I have a question."

"Of course."

"If Neo Arcadia is as perfect as you say, then what was with those humans you were trying to kill?"

"The Resistance?"

"Yeah."

"They are Mavericks, its pretty simple."

"Those were humans, they can't be classified as Mavericks."

"Political definition."

"So their activists?"

"I guess you could say that. We call them terrorists."

"How so? What is their platform and their crimes?"

"Firstly their platform is totally baseless!" Siren sounded insulted even just repeating the words of someone else, "saying that we are a military dictatorship, that we use the armies to control the people with fear! They also accuse us of having a completely arbitrary judical system, such as someone who can't follow orders issued for their own safety as well as that of those around them, that they shouldn't be branded as Maverick! And that the Neo Arcadian government is monopolizing the little remaining energy! We're rationing it until a solution can be found! Why the hell can't those retarded ass-fucks understand that we're only trying to keep everyone safe!"

"And their crimes?"

"Saboutaging supply lines, assaulting military and civilian personel, arson, bombings, raids on weapon and ammo and supply caches, assasinations... the list goes on."

"And it seemed like that blonde girl was their leader."

"Dr. Ciel? yes and no. She leads them in their ideals i suppose, but she isn't really their leader. That's TK-31, or I think he calls himself Elpizo now."

"So what do THEY say is their ideals?"

"Absolute democracy, a rewrite of the lawbook, government restructuring, etc... Its the same old whiny story of every unrealistic terrorist group."

"I see," Kuro stopped to think about it. It's true that many terroristic groups were greatly in the wrong, but every-so-often one of them was actually right.

"We're just about there," Leviathan pointed at a large building.

As the car slowed, they stepped over to the door. An orange haired young woman stood on the platform as the door slid open. Her phone rang as she stepped into the railcar. "This is Neige," she answered as Kuro and Leviathan stepped out. "Hey Craft...Yeah I'm free tonigh-" The rest of the conversation was cut off when the door closed again.

"Welcome to the Neo Arcadian Grand Library!" A pink reploid greeted them, "May I see your identification please?"

Kuro looked at Leviathan who pulled a wallet out of the pocket of the jeans which were once again showing off the dark blue cottons beneath a little bit. "He's with me. Entry allowed on my authority."

"Very well General Leviathan," the pink reploid bowed, "would you like a data assistant today?"

"No, thank you. No in-depth research for me today, just a history lesson or two."


	4. Painful history

4

Kuro found himself a few hundred years behind the ball as far as history goes. Even at the reading speed of a reploid, which was several times that of a brilliant human's, it would be several hours just to catch up to a level of knowledge that would afford him comfort in understanding the happenings of the current world. "I wanna start where I left off."

"I'll teach you how to use our Library then," Leviathan smiled as she waved at a terminal.

Kuro sat himself down in the chair and watched as Siren booted up the screen.

"You merely state your search parameters in order of subject size, for example: Neo Arcadia, Military Officers, Four Guardians, Siren Leviathan."

In responce to her search parameters, the image on the screen seemed to plunge into databases, each one getting more specific, finally stopping on the woman's public records.

"There are times you'll run into access blocks, like if you tried to access my mission records." Turning to the terminal she requested the access, and a red bar covered the center of the screen 'restricted: enter your authorization code or request a return to last screen. either way, your attempt of access has been noted.'

"You keep yourselves locked up pretty tight."

"Someone may discover some kind of information to use against us if we don't."

"I see... so if I ask 'historical events from 2210 to present'..." Kuro watched as the screen filled with thousands of entries. Everything from political scandals to Retirements of important reploids to pivotal battles in the Elf Wars and so on.

"Looks like you'll be busy for a while," Leviathan mused, "I'll go get something for you to drink."

"ummm..." Kuro blushed slightly, "if it's not too much trouble... I haven't eaten since I woke up, and I have no idea how long I was asleep for..."

"Are you an old enough model to need food to break-down in order to function properly?"

"I don't think there are such models... I just verry much prefer food over synths."

"I'll see what I can do."

Waiting until the door closed behind the blue-haired general before stringing the clues to his identity together. He turned to face the screen, "GigaCity, Defenders, Officers."

A few pictures appeared next to the names, ranks, and Units they belonged to. Kuro froze as the faces on the screen began speaking with his locked-memories: A large green-armored reploid that he remembered saluting, a pink armored woman that he remembered changing to black armor and saving a child, a blonde girl who spoke to his heart rather than his memories, a woman who was almost always in front of an operating terminal... Friends, he knew this, but who WERE they?

"Steel Massimo," Kuro read, "Overall Commander of the GigaCity Defenders and Captain of the Assault Unit. Kind-hearted and strong-willed, this man was a titan among men on the battlefield, He valiantly lead the Defenders during the Elf Wars until his untimely fall when he took a direct missle hit to protect his comrades and city. Was decorated with nearly every valourous merit known to mankind." He couldn't doubt this kind of information, he'd never accept anyone he'd question as his Commander. "Marino Rose, Captain of the Infiltration Unit. Formerly a thief, Marino found a way to put her stealth, speed and agility to good use within the Defenders. She was able to get into enemy bases and gather intel as well as on several occasions, release hostages, without ever being detected. She went Maverick at the beginning of the Elf Wars, whether it was because of infection by the Dark Elf or because of the trauma of watching Cinnamon Gaudile's gruesome suicide breaking her mind, it is unknown. Retired by X, reported to return to sanity after critical damage and screaming, 'Cinnamon! I didn't mean what I'd said!'..." This greatly disturbed Kuro, for many reasons. He couldn't believe the kind of heroine he remembered going Maverick, nor that X would have had an easy time Retiring someone as fast as she was... but there was something else.

"Cinnamon Gaudile," even just seeing the name had an effect on the dark repliod, and looking at her face, he remembered gently stroking the cheek. "We were lovers..."

"I hope that's not true."

Kuro hadn't heard the door open. "Why?"

"Read it."

"Cinnamon Gaudile, Captain of the Relief Unit. Creation/Daughter of Professor Gaudile. The girl-reploid was the youngest member ever allowed to join. She was equiped with the Force Metal Generator as well as many inexplicable repair functions that far outstripped the Lifesavoir units of the time. She was as sweet and innocent as she appears in her picture, she'd fight ONLY to protect those she loved. That is, until Shade Kraven, her lover, went Maverick. A month after the end of the GigaCity War, Cinnamon's depression turned to madness. She began in intentionally planting bugs in the systems of those she'd repair. Once she was found out, she'd nearly gone off the deep end. Placed in isolation in the hopes that she'd recover," Kuro cleared his throat, trying to swallow the lump he felt forming. "Cinnamon progressed even further into insanity, documented instances of skitzophrenic conversations, assumed from the way she spoke to be with a percieved image of Kraven; as well as mastochistic tendencies... Oh, Cinny..."

Leviathan stepped forward and in a dark and somber tone, she finished the article, "After nearly a year of teetering between Maverick and a girl broken by grief and heartache, the final line was crossed on the anniversary of the declaration of Kraven going Maverick, Cinnamon attempted to Retire her friend Marino Rose. The attempt was failed when Cinnamon realized what she was doing, she turned the beam dagger she'd tried to stab Marino with on herself, and carved the Kanji for 'evil' into her own chest before anyone could stop her. Her last words were, 'Shade, I'll be waiting'."

Although he could barely remember anything, Kuro began crying. He knew who he was, and that because of him, Axl, Cinnamon, and likely Marino had all died. He scrolled down on the screen to see his own picture. "I am Shade Kraven... Damn it all to Hell..."

Siren was uncertain of how to react. If the history books were right, she was now standing in the presence of one of histories most dangerous reploids. But she'd seen no evidence to support the declaration of Maverick placed on his head. So she read the article in the time between breaths, and discovered the reason. "You were once a Maverick, however, you were still in control of yourself for the most part. According to this, you trapped yourself in the deepest parts of GigaCity's prison complex and created a program to train yourself to control yourself."

"So what? three of my friends died because I went Maverick in the first place."

"But you're not Maverick anymore."

"What are you getting at?"

Siren grabbed him by the shoulders, "you have the chance to begin again. Leave behind the tainted name of Shade Kraven and become Kuro Shadowhisper."

"Why? It won't change what I've done."

"That was hundreds of years ago. You've wiped the slate clean, all you need is a new piece of chalk."


	5. Red Omen

5

"Commander Shadowhisper!" A blue penguin-shaped reploid popped out of the water and onto the deck of the boat Kuro stood on.

It had been only three weeks since his awakening, but Leviathan had given the reformed Shade Kraven command over nearly a third of her forces with X's blessing. "What is it Frigid?"

"Sir! We have just recieved news that the Maverick Disposal Facility has been destroyed by some red reploid!"

"The Disposal? Wasn't Falcon in charge of the defense there?"

"Yessir, we are still unable to contact him."

"Aztec Falcon was trained by Harpuia himself, I doubt he'd go down that easily..." The dark commander brought his hand up to his chin. He glanced at the penguin, judging from the info, is this a new Resistance member or what?"

"It appears that way."

"Thank you Frigid. You are dismissed."

After saluting, the penguin disappeared under the waves and returned to his patrol.

Kuro walked into his readyroom on the ship and closed the door. "Did you hear that?"

Leviathan sat in his chair, twirling her spear above her head as if it were a cheerleader's baton. "Of course."

Kuro caught the spear and stopped the spinning, earning a slightly miffed look from Siren, "What do you think?"

Taking her spear back, Leviathan swung it back over her shoulder and it caught on the EM holster on the back of her vest-armor. "I think somebody got a lucky shot. No reploids of that caliber exist outside of Neo Arcadia."

"Is that what you thought before you ran into me as well?"

"Well... yes..."

"I remember the Resistance members talking about finding 'him' before you attacked them. I wonder if this is the one they had been searching for."

"Who could it possibly be? spmeone they think could actually defeat a Guardian... Since they'd have to go through us merely to make enough impact to change anything."

"Red?... it couldn't possibly be that ancient Maverick Hunter, could it? He'd be strong enough to cause problems."

"Zero? No way, nobody, not even the original X knew where he hid himself."

"Maybe... Should we send an investigation force?"

"It's Harpuia's territory, let him deal with it."

"Ok, so then what is OUR next mission?"

"Well-" The beeping of an incoming transmisson inside her helmet cut Leviathan short. "Yes Master X... Of course... I'll put my best man on it... Very good sir..."

"Big man?"

"Master X is worried about this issue. Appearently we are the closest Neo Arcadian force, so I'm sending you to investigate."

"Yes General."

"Take a Ride Chaser, they may be an old-school design, but they are made with today's components."

"I'll radio as soon as I arrive."

"Good, you wouldn't want to keep a girl waiting."

"not at all. General, permission to speak on a personal matter."

"You know you only have to ask in front of the men."

"Would you go out with me when we return to Neo Arcadia?"

Siren smiled, "that depends on the success of your mission. Now go earn a 'yes'."

Kuro saluted, "gladly."


	6. Encounter

6 - Encounter

Even if you used only what Kuro remembered, it had been nearly twenty years since he'd last felt the thrill of a Ride Chaser. The anti-grav cycle streaked across the surface of the ocean at speeds that would have allowed it to skim the surface even without the gravity repulsers. "I really don't like this..." He thought as he tore across the distance to the Disposal Facility, sending up a high cresting wake due to the speed. "Aztec Falcon was more than a match for most combat reploids. He'd definately be a lower-level A-class, I wonder if Siren understands that you can hardly get THAT lucky a shot."

Kuro looked to the south, knowing that the Resistance's base was only a few miles south. He briefly considered turning, and simply knocking down the doors so he could skip the investigation stage and simply ask at blade point. "No, I'd probably end up accidentally hurting a human since so many of them are there. Plus, I want to avoid any situation that would force me to look at them as Mavericks."

He shook the thought from his head and continued with his mission. As he began his approach, Kuro let up on the accelerator so that any defense systems would have time to ID him instead of merely opening fire due to being unable to tell who was coming. Smoke rose from the entire area, as if a full-scale battle had recently been fought. Mechaniloid parts laid all about, so Kuro brought the vehicle to a stop. he brought his hand to his helmet and activated his radio, "Kuro Shadowhisper to Neo Arcadian Command."

"Guardian Phantom here, go ahead."

Kuro hadn't expected any of the Guardians to be in the Primary Military Comms Section. "Sir, I've arrived in the area of the Disposal Facility. I haven't reached the actual target yet, but it already looks grim."

"Explain."

"It looks like a war broke out here, but only OUR tech is anywhere in sight. Most of the damage seems beam saber, but there is definate use of some kind of Micro-buster as well. I will continue to the target and call again once i arrive."

"Copy that. We are hoping for good news then. Master X will be quite unhappy to hear anything else."

"Roger, I hope for the best as well."

Shifting his weight to it's riding position, Kuro pulled back on the accelerator. It wasn't long afterwards that he pulled up to the smoldering ruins of the Maverick Disposal Facility. Scanning the area visually, Kuro already knew that there were no Neo Arcadian forces left. He reached up to his helmet, "Shadowhisper to Command."

"Go ahead," Phantom answered again.

"There's nothing left. The building's sefl-destruct must've been set off."

"Any sign of anybody?" Harpuia's voice came over the comms, "Where is my officer?"

"I don't see-" Kuro heard rubble tumbling. He snapped his head over, "Who's there!"

An injured green repliod with the Resistance's emblem on his armor stumbled through the ruins, trying to get back to his friendlies to the southwest. He turned, seemingly amazed that anybody was left in the area, "Oh shit!"

Kuro moved with a speed that few possesed, he moved in front of the man trying to escape. Grabbing the soldier by the collar of his uniform, Kuro lifted him off the ground; with his other hand, he re-activated his radio. "Command, this is Shadowhisper, I've captured a straggler. This WAS the Resistance's doing after all."

"Good work," Harpuia responded, "bring him in."

"Permission to give a preliminary questioning."

"As long as you bring him home intact."

"Roger, over and out." Kuro looked at his captive, who'd stopped struggling. "Alright buddy, I'm sure you know the drill. I ask you a question, and you answer it. Think of it this way, the more info you give ME, the less pain THEY will cause you."

"I just escaped death," the captive begged, "don't kill me."

"That depends on you. First Question, how did you find the loctaion of this place?"

"It's hardly a hidden location, and many of us still had our trackers on when you retired us."

"ok. How many of you were in this raiding party?"

"I don't know."

"wrong answer," Kuro threw him to the ground and stepped on his chest, "try again."

"Ah! I really don't know, I was in there for execution!"

Without taking his foot of the Resistance member's chest, the Neo Arcadian commander lifted the sleeve of his captive. Finding the barcode, he cross-checked it with the records of condemned prisoners and found a match. "Fine, how many did you see?"

"J-just one. He battled the guard and defeated him in time to stop the press."

"Was the guard a bird looking guy who used electricity?"

"Yes."

"And the press was started before the fight started?"

"Yes."

Taking the blade from his hip, Kuro pressed the unactivated hilt against the man's forehead. "What did this guy look like?"

"He's red! Long blonde hair! uses a sword! Ungodly skilled! PLEASE DON'T KILL ME!"

"Stop! please!" A familiar voice begged.

Turning, Kuro saw Ciel. "Well, the lady herself shows up in the rescue party? Is this guy important or something?"

"Every life is important!" Ciel voiced from behind several guards.

"Can't argue with that," Kuro glanced over his opponents, and felt no threat. "So, did you come to turn yourself in?"

"Please let him go!" Ciel begged, "he has a child!"

"so did many of the reploids you've had killed."

"I didn't-"

"You did. Even those under your command die with every mission you give them. You said every life counts, start thinking about that when you issue missions."

"we give these missions to protect our posterity."

"Funny, I'm doing that as well. You can turn yourself in to me, or i kill your escort and take you by force."

"How about neither?" A voice came from behind Kuro.

Kuro grabbed his captive and leapt away, he refused to have enemies on his back. He activated his saber and held it to the man's throat as he faced a red reploid that resonated with his memories. Reaching for his helmet, he radioed back to command, "I need immediate Transmission for two!"

The red enemy moved with incredible speed that was possibly faster than Kuro's. In the instant between Kuro beginning to glow and him acutally teleporting away, he managed to cross the thirty feet and impale the dark reploid in the shoulder.


	7. Return

7 - Return

"Medic!" Kuro yelled as soon as he rematerialized in the Neo Arcadia Transmission Station. He released his captive and fell to his knees, clutching his shoulder. On his face was written a combination of frustration and pain, "I could have had her if not for my useless banter!" He gritted his teeth as he watched guards bind the green reploid and one with a first aid kit approached him.

"What the hell happened?" Phantom demanded the moment the door opened.

"It was the guy, the one who took out Aztec Falcon." Kuro gasped slightly as the medic began probing his wound, trying to find and seal all of the coolant leaks, attempting to stop the stream of crimson liquid flowing from the wound to the floor. "It's no wonder he tanked Falcon in under a minute."

"under a minute? how would you know that?"

"That guy," Kuro flinched as he nodded towards the prisoner, "was in the press when the fight started. this red guy pulled him out of it before it got him."

"Red guy?" Fefnir came through the door with Harpuia in tow. "EVERYBODY OUT! unless you are cleared A-classification."

Another Transmission pad glowed as Leviathan appeared in a flash, "What did you do!" She accused Kuro before she saw his injury, "what happened?"

Once the medic was convinced that Kuro wouldn't have problems for a while, he stood, "check into the Repair Center once you've finished debriefing."

"Right," Kuro nodded, "thanks."

The Guardians all watched the reploid leave the room, then turned back to Kuro. "Alright," Harpuia began, "Start with when you arrived at the target."

"Yessir," Kuro stood on wobbily legs, appearently the loss of coolant had allowed his systems to overheat just enough to affect his motor functions. "I was talking with you when I heard movement in the rubble, so I went over and caught the guy I brought back. I squeezed him for info, with he coughed up pretty easily. The moment I got the description of the guy who took down Falcon, a rescue party showed up. Ciel was among them, so I tried to convince them to give themselves up. all of a sudden, this guy practically appeared behind me. So I leapt away and called for an exit. Between then and when I ported out, he crossed at least twenty feet and stabbed me."

"This sounds like he's making shit up," Fefnir scoffed, "He just doesn't wanna take responsibility for Ciel getting away, so he stabbed himself."

"No," Phantom took Kuro's side for the first time since they met, "this wound is too thin for Shadowhisper's blade."

"How could somebody be so fast?" Fefnir tried to punch holes in the story

"I am," Harpuia, Leviathan, Phantom and Kuro responded.

"Look, I know I'm the slowest of us Guardians, but my cannon shots are barely that fast." He turned to Kuro, "and how are YOU, that fast?"

"I just am. Although, I don't know if I'd have the speed to stab too, but I can cover that distance in that time."

"Leviathan," Harpuia looked at his sister, "you know Shadowhisper's abilities best. How good would somebody have to be to scare him away instead of him fighting to capture Ciel?"

"He'd have to be as good as me," Copy X entered through the door. The five soldiers all saluted their Commander-in-Chief. "From all I've heard, this new threat is at least on par with the four of you. plus, I think it's fair to say that Shadowhisper was trying to have one certain captive than risking them all escaping in hopes of snatching a VIP. Am I right?"

"Exactly right, Sir. We can get more info from one prisoner than none."

"Thank you," X nodded, "go the the Repair Center. Take care of that."

"Thank you, Sir," Kuro saluted and stumbled towards the door.

He followed the hallway, keeping his hand on the wall to steady himself. He'd just lied, flat out lied to Copy X. He'd run from the subliminal fear the red reploid caused him, not due to some prisoner-based logic. By the time he'd reached the main door, his legs had nearly given out.

"Oops!" Siren said as she caught him by the arm.

"When'd you get there?" Kuro asked woozily.

"I called out to you a moment ago," concern filled her voice, "what is your internal temp at?"

"just over 200," Kuro would normally recognize this as a problem, with his critical temp at 230, but he was already starting to fade in and out.

"Damn it you idiot!" Leviathan cursed him as she unzipped his vest-armor and removed his helmet. "stop moving on your own once you pass 180! that's common logic!"

"Sorry, Siren."

If Kuro had been lucid, she'd remind him that she was on duty still. but as it was, she wanted to get him to the Repair Center ASAP. She lifted him off of his feet and carried him to the Railcar marked RC. "How much Coolant do you have left?"

"uuuuuuhhhhhh..." The scan took a long time, "12%"

"Fucking Christ!" Leviathan scolded her underling, "What is your problem?"

"I'm sorry. I'm still trying to shake it."

"Shake what?"

"The fear... The Red Ghost..."

"He's not a ghost, just a very strong reploid."

"NO!" Kuro didn't realize he'd yelled that, "you don't understand... I think it was him."

"him?"

"..." Kuro's head began lolling as his vision began giving red warnings in line-of-sight.

"Kuro?"

"...so...hot..." His temprature warnings began to actually cause the pupils of his eyes to flash red.

"Kuro! you gotta pop!" Siren began shaking him, recognizing the final warning signs of overheat failure, "POP YOUR FUCKING JOINTS!"

"...wha...?" Kuro's breath was hot on Leviathan's skin as he tried to understand what she was telling him since he could tell it was important.

Leviathan realized that Kuro's auditory processors were being fried as his temprature must have now passed 220. She bit her lip and realized that his vision would be the only thing he had left. She ripped the sleeve off of her body suit and braced herself mentally. She poped the joints on her arm and nearly screamed from the pain of her psuedo-skin tearing as she did it.

Kuro fell over, barely able to even remember his own name.

"KURO!" Siren screamed as she saw the whitewash building that was their destination.

A loud noise caused the girl to heave a heavy sigh as Kuro still had the capacity to pop his joints. "Thank the stars," she said as the railcar came to a stop in front of the RC.


	8. city

8 - the city

The Repair Specialist on the screen sighed as he looked at the report. "The damage is extensive, General."

"I figured that much on my own," Leviathan put her hands on her hips and cocked her head angrily. She'd just gotten back to her flagship, Atlantis, from a deep-sea expedition tracking the missions of the Red Reploid, highly suspected to be the legendary Zero, and was in no mood for anything besides what she asked for. "I asked what you planned to do with my officer."

"As I was getting to, there isn't much we CAN do. The best option is to insert his mind into a new body."

"So what's the issue then?" Leviathan slammed her hands on the comms console, "Make him a new body then jack him into it!"

"That IS the issue, ma'am."

"meaning?"

"Master X's new energy conservation laws forbid the constrution of new units. We barely have the ability to make alot of standard repair parts."

Fairy relaxed physically, but the ocean of her mind was a tsunami shattering the shore beneath its crushing power. "What options do we have?" she asked in a tone that her brothers would have recognized as her 'I need to fight something NOW' voice.

"We have him repaired to operational capacity. He's being kept on standby to hasten his auto-repair systems abilities, but even like this, it'll be nearly a month before he will be up to 100%"

"That's unacceptable!"

"Well then," the Repair Specialist was tired of being told that the best possible options weren't good enough, "find some fucking parts, princess!"

Leviathan's eyes widened as the feed was cut. After a second, she screamed in rage and drove her spear through the console. As the sparks travelled up the shaft, they stimulated her pain sensors slightly. "Oh," Fairy smiled at the sensation, "beautiful pain. If only this tingle was caused by the blade of a worthy opponent grazing past me as we danced a ballet of blood."

The sparking died down and the Guardian slowly replaced her spear onto the EM holster on her vest. She looked at the wreckage of the panels, and it sparked a memory. Without a word, she strode out of the room and leapt over the railing of the ship.

Diving with a grace equal to her beauty and her skill in battle, the Goddess of the Seas entered the water without more than a single ripple. After a moment, her eyes shifted their vision-mode from 'standard' to 'submerged'. Looking around, she smiled, THIS was where she belonged. Fairy began swimming at a quick pace, but still taking enough time to enjoy the beauty of the reefs she swam past.

After re-confirming her position via her GPS link with the Neo-Arcadian satelitte network, Leviathan turned slightly southward, then added the speed of the turbines in her helmet's fins. After almost two hours, the woman spotted her destination, the ruins of GigaCity.

The Neo Arcadian reploid began circling the ruins, scanning every inch that she could. She grinned when her scans showed what she was looking for, the faint responses of old reploid parts, scattered throughout the city. "The Spoils of War can be found in many forms."

Leviathan sent a GPS ping back to the Atlantis, requesting they send a cargo transport to meet her there. She continued to the same air-lock she'd entered through last time, and found herself in the ruins of the ancient city. She advanced through the ruins to another door.

"WHAT THE HELL?" a voice cried as the Guardian appeared when the door hissed open.

Leviathan spun out of the doorway to dodge the machine-gun fire from the soldiers of the Resistance.

"Hold your fire!" A male voice called out, "Fan out to cover her angles of movement, but do NOT fire unless provoked! Guardian Leviathan, I am Elpizo, leader of the Resistance!"

Leviathan spun to see the man with long blonde hair smiling at her.

"It's an honor to meet you face to face."

"What are you guys doing here?"

"Research," Ciel answered, stepping out from an off-shooting hallway. "We are trying to help Zero piece together his memories."

"Why?"

"He seems to get stronger as he recovers more of who he once was," Elpizo answered.

"That's not why!" Ciel contridicted as if this was far from the first ethical arguement they've had, "we're doing it to help our friend and savior!"

"of course we are," the blonde man agreed as if that were just an extra bonus in his mind. "But," he turned back to the blue-armored warrior, "why-oh-why would a General come without an army?"

Leviathan quickly assessed the situation: she could easily defeat everyone in the room, Elpizo might last around a minute or two, but no major challenges. That was when she noticed it, a shape hidden in the shadows behind Ciel, as if a guardian spirit. "Come out of hiding!" She demanded, pointing at him.

The slow, deliberate, confident, and measured footsteps of a warrior met auditory receptors in Leviathan's ears. Out of the shadows, as if being born of them, emerged an ancient reploid clad in red armor; in his left hand, he held a shot-buster and in his right was the hilt of a beam-saber. His long blonde hair flowed behind him as if he were moving quickly, and his dark eyes pierced straight into the soul. Zero didn't say anything, he merely stared at the one who ranked amoungst his most dangerous enemies.

"Oh you must be Zero," Leviathan admired the warrior, although he was slimer than she'd expected, it was clear he'd be a match for her. "You're really cute," she winked flirtatiously

The faintest blush touched Zero's cheeks for a moment, and a look of jealously flashed in Ciel's eyes. "Answer the question," Zero's voice was as peircing as his eyes, but there was a softness in it; he was a warrior, but far from a killer.

"Like you, I'm also here to help a friend."

"What do you mean?" Ciel asked

"I need replacement parts for my friend who was badly injured by Zero."

"Was it Shade Kraven?"

Leviathan blinked at the girl, "how do you know his old name? I didn't even tell my brothers who Kuro once was."

"It's one of the things we discovered here," Elpizo explained, "He was a terrible man, how can you possibly allow him to live?"

"His crimes WERE terrible," Fairy felt like she was on trial, "but he did everything he could to reform, and even now he continues his quest for peace."

"WE fight for peace!" one of the soldiers shouted at the woman.

"We DO fight for the same goal of peace," Ciel asked with a plea in her voice, "can't we just work together for a solution that doesn't require people and reploids to suffer?"

"It's not up to me. I follow orders... If you allow me to retrieve things without hindering me, I'll tell Master X that your methods may have merit, and that you should hold a parley."


	9. black and blue

9 - Black and Blue

(M-rating begins here)

Kuro sat with his back against the wall in the recovery ward. "It's finally here..."

Leviathan, who was keeping him company at the time turned her head, "what is?"

Resting his head against the wall, Kuro closed his eyes and smiled. He turned and looked at Leviathan with adoration, "because of you... for the first time since my original activation... a REAL chance at peace has presented itself.

Fairy felt her cheeks heat up. "I..." She felt so embarrassed by the statement, "was only trying to get parts to help you."

Kuro smiled, "So.. you DO care."

Leviathan flicked Kuro in the forehead, "jerk!"

Chuckling, Kuro swung his legs over the edge of the bed and stood up.

"Hey! has the mechanic cleared you yet?"

"No," Kuro admitted, "but the mechanic isn't the one who ACTUALLY knows whats going on inside me... is he?"

Leviathan grinned, recognizing Fefnir's excuse to avoid the time-consuming check-ups. "No. He isn't, is he?" she chided as they began to leave together.

Kuro, feeling unnaturally bold, added, "I'd like that to be you someday."

The Water Guardian stood with her face red from embarrassment. After a moment, her feelings changed from personal attraction to professional discipline, "Shadowhisper, you stay right there!"

Noticing the change in the woman's tone of voice, Kuro realized that he'd overstepped a boundary.

The blue armored woman put her hands on her hips when she stormed right up to the dark garbed warrior. "Stand at attention when I scold you!"

Snapping to, Kuro wished he hadn't felt so liberal around his general. Maybe he could pass it off as the repairs playing with his judgement if it got that bad. "Yes, Ma'am!"

The entire Repair Center lobby staff was watching the exchange.

"You may be one of my favorite underlings, but that doesn't mean you can address me so openly!"

"I understand, General!" Kuro's heart sank, realizing that he may have effectively destroyed any chance he ever had with Fairy Leviathan.

"There is a certain degree of discipline I expect from even the most personal of my officers!" Leviathan began pacing.

"Yes, of course!"

"And after I do you a personal favor, I expect that you show a certain level of gratitude! Not some half-assed attempt to flirt with me!"

One of the staff felt the need to be prepared and pulled up Kuro Shadowhisper's data.

"Ma'am I truely apologize if I misinterpreted your gestures of friendship as something deeper than they were!"

Leviathan stopped and got right up to the deep green eyes of her subordinate, "I'm glad you understand your place is beneath me, Kuro"

Suddenly feeling the unexpected, yet familiar sensation of Transmission, Kuro grasped for something. His hands fell on his General, who seemed to have shared the Transmission Stream with him.

Fairy ran her fingers through the crimsion tangle that was Kuro's hair. She yanked it, causing him to close the inch between their faces.

An emotional shock, although a VERY welcome one, travelled through Kuro as Leviathan hungrily pressed her lips against his.

Changing the direction of the force she applied to the blood-red hair, Fairy threw Kuro towards a water-bed in the middle of an aqua-lit chamber.

"While your position is under me..." Leviathan began removing all of her armor by hand, almost teasing Kuro in the way she did it. She grabbed the dark-grey body suit of the one that made her feel this way, "I'm going to teach you that your position is UNDER me!"

Kuro's proccessors were overwhelmed for a slight moment. Although his memories were broken, he remembered his physical relationships with at least three seperate female units... One was the blonde that the archives identified as Cinnamon Gaudile; those were, with the exception of the incident that gave him the Maverick title, extremely gentle... Another was a pink armored and green haired unit that he assumed was Marino Rose, all of these seemed similar in the feeling to the current situation, but they were one-sided domination, not seeming to be recipocated... but more times than those two combined, were far older memories of a grey eyed, brown-haired beauty. This unit had enjoyed every touch the two of them EVER shared, much the way he currently felt about the woman currently exherting control over him. While every instance of romance had tenderness, The grey-eyed unit loved to be 'punished'... Kuro wondered if Fairy Leviathan was like this as well.

Fairy found a similar feeling to that she'd felt everytime she'd faced Kuro in battle, whether in sparring matches or the one time they'd faced in mortal combat. "Shadowhisper..." She forced out through the ShadowPin with much effort. She felt part of her becoming excited, "release me..."

"Sorry Fairy," Kuro adressed Leviathan by her personal name for the first time since he became part of her personal squad. He ran his fingers through the long aquamarine hair of the woman trying to control the experience. "But I'm going to teach you," He grabbed a handful near the bottom, "even here in your own room," He began flicking his wrist, wrapping the gossimer fibers around his hand, "that you aren't always the one in control."

Leviathan gasped once she felt glorious pain as Kuro backed her up by pulling the hair. She hit the wall, feeling thrilled knowing she was trapped, although her inner-warrior hated the knowledge. The conflicting emotions only heightened the feelings as Kuro yanked her hair downwards and biting the nape of the neck exposed by his actions. "Ah!" she had tried to resist it, but the pleasured blut escaped.

He knew these gasps and reactions well, Leviathan was just like the lover whose name he couldn't remember. She was subconciously sumbissive and adored the sensations that pain caused. "Do you enjoy it?" He taunted as he ran his free hand down her back and squeezed her buttocks.

Leviathan knew that if she ever wanted to retain control in a personal setting, she'd have to tell him off NOW. But before her mind could finish processing the response she intended, the truth came out, "yes.."

"Do you want to be treated like a belvoed toy?" Kuro wanted to make sure that he never insulted the one he felt so strongly towards, "or a disobiedent slave?"

Leviathan was trying to resist not only Kuro, but her own twisted fantasies.

Kuro tightened his grip slightly and gently bit her ear, to prove that he wanted an answer.

"AH!" the sounds of pain and pleasure mixed beautifully in Fairy's voice, "I'm a toy! A toy that needs to be played with and left on the floor!"

Kuro hadn't quite expected that Leviathan was a girl with a rape fantasy. He pulled away slightly and stopped his actions on her body, "A-are you sure?"

Leviathan's mind focused a little when she heard the uncertainty in the voice of the one who seemed to be her master until just now. "I..." she was suddenly very aware of what she'd just revealed, "um..."

"If you want me to love you and leave you, I can..." part of Kuro didn't like that at all, "but a gorgeous and special girl like you deserves better on her first time."

Suddenly aware, Leviathan pushed Kuro off of her. She turned shy, covering herself, even though still clothed. "How?" Leviathan's face was redder than Fefnir's armor.

"'How?' to what?"

Leviathan lowered her voice, seeming embarassed to no end by this fact, "How did you know I am a virgin?"

Kuro grinned, "you went from dominant to submissive without any effort on my part at all." Kuro snickerd tesasingly, "You had no idea what you liked."

Nearly coming to tears of anger and embarrassment, Fairy Leviathan slapped Kuro Shadowhisper as hard as she could.

Completely blindsided by the strike, Kuro was lifted off his feet. Landing several feet away, he looked over at the Lady of the Lance once his proccesses caught up with what had just happened.

Leviathan was breathing heavily enough to cause her entire upper body to move as she did. She was in an obvious rage from the way she gritted her teeth as spoke, "I hand myself to you! tell you my most embarrassing secret! and then you tease me about being a virgin!"

"NO!" Kuro suddenly realized that he had unintentionally wasted something immeasurably precious, "I didn't mean it like that at all!"

"Get out." Leviathan turned around and put a hand on the window overlooking the city on her left.

"But Fairy-" Kuro stepped towards the girl he likely loved.

"DON'T EVER CALL ME THAT AGAIN!" She screamed so hard that the window in front her cracked.

Emotions overwhelming him, Kuro began crying before he even turned to run towards the door.


	10. parley

10 - Parley

Kuro thought back as he stood on the Transmission Pad...

"I've been what?" Kuro asked when Copy X approached him with a request from the Resistance.

"They seem to believe you'd be somewhat neutral in this case from you helping them in past," Copy X explained, "as such, Dr Ceil has requested that you act as the mediating party at the Parley."

"And what do you think, Master X?"

"I think it is a resonable request," he nodded, "plus even if you had any inclinations, it would be towards us. Especially since you are in a relationship with Leviathan."

"Actually, Sir..."

"Yes, we all know about your spat, all of the Guardians' quarters are on that level. Haven't you noticed the look in Fefnir's eyes? He wants to kill you for upsetting his sister so badly."

Giving a sarcastic huff, Kuro grinned at his leader, "Please, he wanted to fight me before I even had a name."

For the first time ever, at least in Kuro's presence, Copy X laughed.

"Commander Shadowhisper," the operator's voice came over the loudspeaker, "everything ready?"

Standing straight, Kuro gave a thumbs up. Almost immediately, he felt the lurch of Transmission. After the flash faded, he looked around. A few hundred meters to the north, he spotted four figures at the agreed meeting location. He slowly walked towards them.

As he got closer, he ran all four faces through the files he had on Resistance members. He immediately got two hits, the leader of the militaristic wing, Elpizo and The Scientist leader, Ciel. After another moment, he recognized the other blonde, even without a file search. He subconciously reached up to his shoulder, where Zero had stabbed him the last time they'd met. And finally, came the fourth, registered as Unit MW-4423 AKA Cerveau. In other words, the two greatest minds and two strongest swords of the Resistance were there.

"I'm glad to see that you all made it safely," Kuro greeted as he noticed Elpizo's hand hovering near the hilt of his rapier. Brushing that fact off, he continued, "I am Commander Kuro Shadowhisper from the Meikai Army of Neo Arcadia. I will be acting as mediator for this meeting, as per your request."

Elpizo stepped forward slightly, "We are:" he motioned to each in turn, "Dr Ciel, Dr Cerveau, Zero and I am Elpizo of the Resistance."

Kuro looked behind him as five Transmission Streams struck the ground where he'd arrived. He quickly produced four small devices and handed one to each of the members, under the farce of a handshake. "If they try anything, use these."

"E-Pop's?" Zero used an old term that even Kuro as almost too young for.

"Right, emergency transmitters. Dial them to your transmitter's frequency before they get close enough to tell what you're doing."

About ten minutes later, the meeting was underway. Copy X and Elpizo did most of the talking, with their sub-commanders standing behind them. Kuro looked over both parties, trying to gage reactions and interject before anybody got unduely upset. He stopped when he saw Fefnir's attention wasn't on the meeting; the man's eyes burned with fiery anger. He silently mouthed the words, "I'll kill you if you ever upset her again, even against orders."

Shadowhisper cocked his head and also mouthed his response, "it was her fault. She mistook my meaning. I did nothing wrong. I guarentee you, I hurt worse than her... So shut your face."

Narrowing his eyes, "watch your back. I'll be aiming at it."

Kuro turned his attention back to the meeting. His eyes were drawn downwards when he heard a soft click. He knew the click well, somebody just switched off the safeties on a buster. "Excuse me," Kuro interrupted, gaining a confused look from Elpizo and an angered one from Copy X.

"I just heard the arming of a weapon."

"I didn't hear anything," Elpizo said.

"I had heard it too," Zero said, "it was a buster."

Zero and Elpizo both leapt in front of Ciel, drawing their blades. "I hope there is some misunderstanding..." Elpizo said doubtfully.

"No," Phantom had managed to moved almost too fast for Kuro to track. "just a trap."

Zero knocked away the high-speed blow and struck at the enemy who seemed to melt into the shadows on the ground. He reappeared and slashed Zero across the back.

"USE THEM!" Kuro yelled.

Ciel disappeared in a flash of light, followed by Cerveau. Leviathan managed to spot the E-pops as Elpizo and Zero reached for them, and swinging her spear, she fired ice and froze the devices to their hands, neutralizing the electronics inside them. She stepped in front of Elpizo and took a stance, "now, now... I didn't say you could leave."

"TRAITOR!" Fefnir grabbed Kuro by the throat and lifted him high off the ground, "YOU GAVE THEM THOSE! DIDN'T YOU?"

"Harpuia," Copy X turned as the situation in front of them seemed to be working in their favor.

"Yes, Master X."

"You come with me and let them handle this, we have to begin planning the next step."

"Yes, Master X."

"I am sorry to see you as a turncoat and a Maverick, Shadowhisper... But this isn't the first time, is it?"

"You bastard!" Kuro yelled as he struggled against Fefnir's extreme strength, "You had a chance at the peace we wanted!"

"The peace YOU wanted," X corrected, "my peace doesn't involve ANYONE that doesn't follow my orders to the letter... Retire the Mavericks, then return home."

"YES MASTER X!" the three Guardians responded.


	11. dark day

11 - Dark Day

"EAT THIS!" Fefnir yelled as he pressed his cannon against Kuro's stomach. The blast sent him flying out of Fefnir's grip and high into the air.

"How did this happen..." Kuro's mind wondered, "two weeks ago, everything was great... Fairy didn't hate me, I was friends with these guys, I wasn't a traitor... everything was so black and white..."

"RRRRAAAAHHH!" Fefnir yelled as he charged his cannons for a blast that would vaporize Kuro if it hit.

"...Fairy... I still love you..." regaining his balence, Kuro caught his beam saber as he reversed polarity on his EM holster. He activated it and yelled, "I won't let it end like this!"

"GOT YOU!" Fefnir fired the blast, "HELLFIRE COMET!"

Throwing his weight, the dark armored repliod managed to avoid the ball of bluish flames. "Let's dance, Fefnir!" Kuro challenged as he slashed.

Leaping backwards, Fefnir avoided the blow.

Using the advantage of his superior speed, the moment he hit the ground, Shadowhisper dashed right for the red repliod. he rammed his shoulder into the Guardian of Flames.

Raising his arms above his head, Fefnir countered with a hammer-blow. The dark blur left from under him and he sent a shockwave throught the ground when he hit it.

"I got you," Kuro said as he stepped onto 'Fighting' Fefnir's shadow. He immediately felt the strain as his opponent struggled. Raising his purple blade above his head, Kuro swung for the killing blow.

Fefnir was able to roll away, merely losing half of his beloved cannon from the attack.

Kuro looked upwards. The sun which had until just now been shining, was covered by thick thunderheads. It had caused the Guardian's shadow to dissappear.

"MWAHAHA!" Fefnir laughed victoriously, "I know about your ablilties! Without shadows, you're not even half as good!"

Kuro grinned, "But Fefnir... We are in one MASSIVE shadow now!" Rain began to fall heavily, "YOU are the one weakened by this environment!"

Fefnir gasped and thought his eyes decieved him as Kuro's blade changed colors to better fit his name.

"The only thing that could make me stronger now is if it wasn't raining."

A black arc came flying straight at Fefnir from Kuro's sword. Not having enough time to dodge, Fefnir threw his arms up in the way.

"One down..." Kuro said as Fefnir's system forced him to E-Pop. He turned to find which of the Resistance members needed his help most.

"ICICLE STORM!" Leviathan fired a blast of ice energy stright upwards, causing all of the rain above Elpizo to freeze into deadly shards of ice.

Elpizo looked up, realizing he didn't have the ability to block it all. Regardless, he began weaving his rapier in a complicated pattern, breaking everything that he could.

Leviathan grinned as several of the ice blades still pierced their target.

Elpizo collapsed to the ground, his coolant trickling down the frozen shards. "Damn... I... couldn't... do... anything..."

Leviathan strode over and raised her spear, "I hereby execute you under the Justice Code of Neo Arcadia!"

Even at his top speed, Kuro had to dive in order to stop the killing blow. He struggled against Leviathan's full strength, which he'd never faced before.

The Guardian of Water pressed as hard as she could against the hilt of her spear. Even if she couldn't pierce Kuro, she could likely force his own sword against him.

"Fairy!" Kuro begged, "Stop this! PLEASE!"

Her eyes flashed as they reflected a bolt of lightning in the distance, "I told you never to call me that!"

"Listen!" Kuro felt he was beginning to lose the fight. "I didn't mean what I'd said in the way you took it! I never made fun of you!"

"LIAR!" Leviathan felt Kuro's arm begin to tremble

"I mean it! I was truly honored when I realized that you wanted me as your first! That's why I said what I said! I wanted..." he grunted slightly as his wrist began to give, "I wanted it to be special for you! I LOVE YOU!"

Hearing that caused Fairy to take an emotional step back. The pause in her determination cause a slight falter in her strength.

Kuro rolled his wrist outward, causing the head of Leviathan's spear to graze his arm. Kuro winced at the pain as he jumped from his back to his feet. He took a defensive stance and waited for the blue clad woman to answer.

"You..." She was obviously emotionally troubled, "You only said that to get away... didn't you?"

"You know me far better than that," Kuro said gently, dropping his stance but not his guard. "I would NEVER do anything underhanded."

"But you gave the enemy the ability to run, you warned them... If you really loved me, you would have killed them all right there like the plan was."

Kuro walked up to Leviathan and looked her in the eyes.

Fairy had to look slightly upwards due to the difference in their height. The confusion in her eyes was plain as day. She saw a dark blur before feeling a slap hit her cheek and part of her helmet. Fire returned to her eyes, "WHAT THE HELL?"

"That's what I should be asking you," Kuro sounded upset, but still not hostle, "not only was it such a dishonorable thing to do... You didn't even tell me."

"I-it..." Levithan looked ashamed to the point of tears, "It was orders. Master X did some of his own research and found out who you were. He wanted to find a way to prove whether you were Maverick or not... He directly ordered that you wouldn't find out about the plans for the Parley."

"So... Does that mean that you didn't even love me enough to prevent me from bringing the extra E-Pops? Or some kind of hint?"

"NO!" Leviathan dropped her spear, grasped Kuro by the shoulders and pressed her crying face against his chest.

Kuro was suprised by the voracity of the reaction, but smiled slightly and wrapped his arms around Fairy.

They stood like that, not caring about the storm raging around them, or the battle fifty feet away.

Phantom had seen Fefnir Transmit away defeated, and that had suprised him. But what he saw as he used a Beam Shuriken to block Zero's saber downright disturbed him. He shifted his weight to throw the red reploid away from him to get a clear look, praying that the motion of the battle with the antiquated legend was playing tricks on his eyes. He actually pulled off his helmet to get a clear view, revealing blonde hair and a half-corroded forehead. His rage peaked when he saw that his sister actually WAS wrapped in the arms of someone branded as both a Maverick and a Traitor.

Zero glanced over long enough to see what could possibly distract such a high-caliber opponent, but he didn't stop.

Phantom turned and saw the saber just before it pierced him. Just long enough to prevent a mortal blow. He still screamed out in pain.

Leviathan tore herself from her shame and turned in time to see the Hero of the Resistance grab her brother by his exposed cranium. "NNNNOOOOOOOO!"

"Goodbye," Zero said as he squeezed the weak metal.

If Kuro didn't already have Fairy wrapped in his arms, he'd have never been able to stop her from rushing headlong at Zero as Phantom fell limply to the ground.

The red reploid strode slowly towards the two of them as sparks began coursing through Phantom and the puddles around him.

"T-t-t-tt-rait-tors..." 'Hidden' Phantom, Guardian of the Shadows, issued his last words dispite most of his processors begin scattered all around him, "b-b-b-bbbooth o-of you..." A moment later, his core breached, and in a flash of light, Phantom was vaporized.

**"NNNNNNNNOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"** Leviathan screamed like she never had before.


	12. decision

12 - Decision

"LET ME GO!" Leviathan demanded as she wrenched at Kuro's arms.

"Fairy! Stop!" Kuro had to use his entire body to prevent his love from charging into what was likely certain death. "He's already gone! There's nothing you can do!"

"Phantom! Not Phantom! NO!" Her struggling became more like random thrashing as Zero approached.

Kuro couldn't read the expression on Zero's face as he approached. He feared for Leviathan and shifted his weight to have the ability to jump back if need be.

Zero's face softened as he came into striking distance. He reached a hand out and put it on Leviathan's shoulder.

The woman's thrashing instantly ceased, "y-you didn't have to kill him..."

"I did," Zero countered gently, "he hid it well, but he was dying anyways from a virus corruption. I could feel it in his blows, he knew he didn't have long."

"But you could have let him live!" She sobbed, "let him enjoy his little remaining time!"

"Fairy," Kuro interjected, "we're warriors. Dying against a truly worthy opponent is something we live for. In battle we find ourselves, in death we find freedom."

Zero's expression changed slightly, "I... I know that saying."

"Our, by that I mean the Hunter's leader, used to say that to anyone struggling with the loss of a squadmate."

"Sig...Sig..." Zero removed his hand from the Guardian's shoulder and brought it to his head as he searched for the name, "Signas..."

"Yes, I believe so..."

Zero moved over to Elpizo, whose breaths were slow and rattled. "He needs an emergency repair. I'm taking him back to base..." He looked at Kuro, "What are you going to do?"

Kuro looked completely helpless before the question. "I..." He knew nothing, everything he had known, everything he'd believed was in shambles on the ground before him, so to speak.

"You can't come back."

Kuro looked almost hurt as he looked at Leviathan who had begun searching for as many pieces of her brother as she could find.

She fell to her knees and pulled a chunk of the black helmet helmet to her chest, "...Phantom..."

"She's right," Kuro realized, "Copy X set me up... Fefnir is on a vendetta... They all know me as a traitor..." He felt himself begin to shake.

Leviathan was pulled from her grief when she saw the emotional turmoil of her former subordinate. She stood and allowed the piece of her brother to fall next to her feet. She strode over and wrapped her arms around him, offering her support. "I know you are no Maverick. I will watch over you from afar, and if the situation calls for it, we will cross blades again. But, I will never think of you as my enemy."

The woman's warmth radiated through even their armor. It pierced straight through to the personality data that most Reploids refer to as a soul. Kuro's emotional torment was slightly eliviated, he wrapped Leviathan up, "Fairy..."

Zero felt it was his time to leave, "Kuro," He quickly scratched a number on a piece of metal, not caring that it was likely a piece of Phantom,."I'll give you the Resistance's Transmitter frequency and tell them they might expect you."

"Thank you," Kuro opened a hand without releasing Leviathan, "i doubt I'll use it, but its good to know I'm welcome somewhere."

Zero gave a thumbs-up as he reached for his helmet, "Operator, Transmit directly to the Repair Center. Elpizo is seriously damaged." After a smile, Zero disappeared in a flash of light.

Kuro loosened his hold on his love.

Fairy hadn't expected it so soon and made a questioning noise as Kuro stepped back and looked straight at the rain pounding everything around them.

"It's funny," Kuro said philisophically, "out here, nothing cares who you are."

"What do you mean?"

Scoffing playfully at himself, Kuro smiled darkly, "maybe it's my age showing to say something so profound." He released Leviathan and surveyed the destruction around him the battles had caused.

"So where will you go?"

"I have no idea..."

Leviathan had an odd feeling, as if she was about to watch part of herself go forever, "Kuro..."

The dark clad warrior looked at his former superior, he smiled.

Leviathan knew something had to happen before she went back to Neo Arcadia, "I... need you to damage me."

"What?" he was sure he hadn't heard her right.

"They'll know I smiply let you go if I go back undamaged."

"I see," Kuro looked reluctant as he activated his beam saber. The rain turned to steam as it approached the energy blade, causing a quiet hissing noise to fill the air.

"I trust you," Leviathan closed her eyes.

"I love you," Kuro said right before raising his blade and after causing several small injuries to give the appearence of a fierce battle, he took Leviathan's left arm from her. He watched somberly as the E-pop built into her systems activated and whisked her away to the safety of Neo Arcadia. "So... now what?"


	13. Ciel's call

13 - Ciel's call

Reports of a black reploid wielding a purple blade surfaced from time to time, both through the info networks of the Resistance as well as Neo Arcadia. But by the time anyone from either showed up to investigate these rumors, they found nothing but someone with a story.

Most of the stories started the same way, "I was running for my life..." generally from Neo Arcadian Retirement Troops, the Units deticated to hunting down and executing runaway humans and reploids. The inconsistencies were sparse when it comes to the appearences of the reploid who was rapidly becoming a ghost story to anyone who'd be outside the direct influence of Neo Arcadia and causing a disturbance; black armor, green eyes, bloodred hair, purple sword, and usually a drawn look on his face.

Both sides of the war searched for Kuro Shadowhisper; Neo Arcadia to kill him, and the Resistance to try and recruit him. It was almost three months after his disappearence, when the Resistance had gained enough resources to become a direct threat to Neo Arcadia, before anybody had a confirmed contact with him.

"This is a call for the Resistance," a voice called on an open air frequency

"Who's this?" The Operator answered warily

"A friend, is Dr Ciel there?"

After a minute, the gentle voice of the young woman came through, "This is Ciel. Who is this?"

"I've saved your life twice now, but I'm not one of your number."

"I see," Ciel smiled, understanding that for whatever reason, Kuro was trying to keep his name secret. "It has been a while, how are you holding up?"

"I'm still alive, but with the way I've been working, not sure how long that will last."

"We have seen you have been keeping quite busy," Ciel had heard of over seventy stories about him in that three month period, "why are you calling?"

a slight laugh came over the radio, "i think part of me is just looking for comeradery, this Lone Ranger thing is pretty lonely."

"If you feel like it, you know you are always welcome to join us."

"I do, but..."

After ten seconds of silence, Ciel felt impatient, even she wanted Kuro as an ally; if she could help him sort out his problems, maybe she could convince him to join them. "But what?"

"If I go to your base, even just a visit..." there was a hesitation in his voice, "I feel like it would sever my one remaining tie to them."

Even the Resistance knew about Kuro's relationship with Leviathan, "I understand..."

"Do you?"

Thinking for a moment, Ciel's mind imagined what it would be like if Zero turned his coat. While it would break her heart, the scientist knew it wouldn't change her feelings for the red warrior. "Yes."

Kuro heard the emotion in her voice and knew she meant what she said. "I do have something else," Kuro seemed reluctant to ask.

"What is it?" Ciel somehow knew that this was meant for her specifically.

"I need some repairs and maintanence. Would you be able to meet me somewhere and do the work?"

"It would be much easier on one of our repair beds," Ciel said matter-of-factly. After a moment of silence, she considered what Kuro had said about going to the base, "I understand... where would be a good place to meet?"

"Is this line secure? Meaning ONLY you can hear me?"

after a series of clicks, Ciel made an affirmative "hm."

"I'm in a mountain range about eighty miles straight south of you. I can't go anywhere because I've seen Fefnir himself in the area. I wouldn't last against a Guardian in my condition, I've been hiding in a cave for a week."

"I'll need to bring support if that's the case."

"Zero."

"And probably a fe-"

"JUST Zero." *_click*_


	14. Fefnir Strikes

14 - Fefnir Strikes

"Another patrol," Zero warned as he stepped in from the mouth of the cave.

Ciel had Kuro stripped from the waist up, and was working on his circutry from the access panel that opened on his back. She stopped working, turning off the flashlight she was holding with her teeth. She pulled it out and wriggled her jaw, "never thought I'd be thankful for that," she smiled, "my mouth was getting sore, but I'm done with his torso." She closed the panel, and Kuro's psuedoskin reformed over the creases.

Kuro shivered as the skin reformed, "Rah! that feels so wierd... So, in your opinion, how much longer?"

"Maybe another hour or so," Ciel thought, "I still need to work on your legs."

"I'm not sure if we have an hour," Zero commented as he slowly edged towards the mouth of the cave to see if the coast was clear. "These patrols are becoming more frequent, and each time they come closer. I think they know you are in the area... We're clear for now."

"Alright Kuro," Ciel motioned to him.

Suddenly Kuro blushed profusely when he thought about how he needed to strip entirely for Ciel to work on his legs. "I think I should have asked for Cerveau for this part."

"What do you mean?" Ciel asked then thought about it, "oh come on, I'm a professional!"

"SSHHH!" Zero sharply hushed them, not sure if he'd heard something coming or not. He pulled his shot buster out and stepped out of the cave to investigate. After a minute he came back in, "still clear."

"You still have your buster out," Kuro observed, "are you sure?"

"No," Zero admitted, "I feel like somebody is out there, so be quiet and let her work."

Not sure if Zero was being serious about the last part or not, Kuro reluctantly removed his body suit completely. Ciel kept her eyes above his waistline as she handed him the towel she'd been wiping her hands on, "here, if this makes you more comfortable."

"Thanks," Kuro accepted the cloth, even though it was covered in chemicals. "It's nothing personal, its a decency thing."

"uh-huh," Ciel said dismissively as she ran her fingers along his leg looking for the release for the access panel of his leg. She found it and set to work, this time setting the flashlight on her leg.

After about ten minutes Zero's attention was suddenly entirely outside the cave. "We're out of time!" he whispered sharply, "they're coming."

"But..." Ciel pleaded, "I'm not close to done."

"Doctor," Kuro gave an assuring grasp on the shoulder, "I can cloak, act like I'm not here."

Ciel's eyes betrayed many feelings about the idea, "but how could they possibly believe it's just us in here?"

Zero bit his lip, "Ciel, this will change alot with how people view our time together... but we can pull it off..."

"What do you mean?"

"When they demand to see who else is in here, act like you are just finishing redressing when you come up behind me."

Her eyes changed again, "you can't be serious?"

A voice from outside the cave stopped the conversation, "We know you're in there Kuro!"

"Fefnir..." he gritted his teeth as he faded into the darkness.

Zero pulled his helmet off before he stepped to the mouth of the cave, placing it back on his head. "Damn Neo Arcadians! Even out here we can't have any peace!"

"Zero?" Fefnir was legitimately dumbfounded, "what the hell?"

Ciel bit her lip and her cheeks reddened with shame as she began to unbutton her overshirt. She looked over at Kuro, to see nothing.

Fefnir leapt from the ledge he had been standing on. He landed with the sound of gravel being crushed beneath his feet. He walked right up to Zero, flipping his new smaller cannons into combat-position. He peered over Zero's shoulder, "who's in there with you?"

Ciel came out, acting as if she had just gotten hastily dressed, and thoroughly embarassed about the implications of this plan.

Some of Fefnir's lesser officers began giving cat-calls and various other taunting you might give somebody caught in the act.

Ciel decided she needed to put on an act fast, Fefnir didn't seem entirely convinced. She stomped her foot, "How dare you give us such grief for our feelings!" She latched onto Zero by the shoulders, making sure to stay just far enough away that she wouldn't interfere with any movements he might need to suddenly make. To her suprise, the contact, whether a farce or not, felt right. She smiled slightly as she realized she might have more than just a crush on the hero of the Resistance.

Zero placed his hand protectively around Ciel's waist and grasped it gently.

Fefnir grinned, "so the rumors ARE true."

"Say what you will," Ciel tightened her hold and edged closer to Zero, allowing her emotions to add to the natural element of the farce. "I love Zero."

For a moment, the two red reploids stared at each other. Fefnir raised his arm and made a strange hand signal. He grinned, "well, sorry to interrupt a private moment."

Suddenly Zero tensed and Ciel felt a rushing movement. She found herself in Zero's arms on top of the ridge with the cave. All of the N-A officers surrounded them with weapons drawn, charged and aimed.

"But, no matter what you two were doing..." Fefnir cackeled, "all Class-S criminals are to be terminated on sight! OPEN FIRE!"

Ciel felt like a ragdoll, even with Zero's arms absorbing most of the movement. After a black arc came flying past and shearing a blue and green repliod, Ciel found herself flying away from the protective grasp of her red hero. The red arms were replaced by a pair of black ones.

"GET HER OUT OF HERE!" Zero screamed as he drew his saber and shot buster.

"Anubis stay here!" Fefnir ordered as Kuro began tearing across the terrain with a screaming Ciel, who was reaching toward Zero as if her hand could protect him from any damage. "Everyone else persue the traitor!"

Zero squared off, preparing to fight not only Fefnir, but his personal apprentice as well. Kuro ran, trying to save the important life that didn't want to be in HIS arms; his former allies slowly closing the distance behind him.


	15. Fight for Life

15 - Fight for Life

After mere seconds, Ciel could no longer see Zero, only the Neo Arcadians in hot persuit. There were six of them, and judging from the rank insignias she caught glimpses of, they were all at least Unit Captains. She looked up at Kuro's face and saw pure despairation, he was giving it everything he could to make sure that Ciel made it away with her life. Realizing the position she had put two of her most powerful allies, Ciel felt an overwhelming sense of guilt and helplessness. She knew that for whatever reason: the Laws of Robotics, that she was a woman, or simple friendship had two of her friends desperately risking their lives so she could the first time in a long time, Ciel's age became appearent as she clutched at Kuro's chest armor and leaned against him crying.

Kuro felt the teenaged scientist's actions and held her closer, trying to comfort her as he surveyed his persuers. "I've fought three of them during excercises..." He thought as he serached his memories, "Inferno Scorpion, Raging Lyca and Blizzard Yeti. They would always be the three guarding the flag in CTF battles... I don't know the others."

Looking forward, Kuro paled. The terrain changed and created an evironment of sheer walls and rock pillars everywhere, he'd soon be brought into weapons' range in these conditions. Gritting his teeth, he adjusted his grip on Ciel so she wouldn't get hurt from all the jerking movements that were about to happen. "Hold tight, I can't promise you won't get hurt."

"Kuro?" Ciel asked weakly.

"Don't worry, you might get bruised, but I won't let them get you."

"Thanks, but will Zero be okay?"

Kuro looked back the way they'd come, not answering immediately. He'd fought against Anubis Necromancer III twice, and had only won through coincedences both times.

"Kuro?" Ciel's voice filled with worry and dispair.

Checking that he still had a few seconds before needing to dodge the terrain, Kuro smiled down at her. "Do you really think anyone could ever beat THE Zero?"

Ciel didn't have time to answer before she began getting jerked around as Kuro leapt between openings in the rocks.

A heat-shot hit the rocks just behind them as Inferno Scorpion was the first in firing range. Soon after, almost all of them were firing or throwing something after their quary, even if it was just stones they snatched off the ground. Kuro Shadowhisper and Dr. Ciel Verati, both of them were S-Class Criminals. Both of them almost promised promotions if one would bring them down. The distance closed between them at a slow but steady pace.

Kuro knew he couldn't out run them, not with Ciel. His mind raced for any possible way he could take on six A-Level opponents. It would be almost impossible, even if he wasn't protecting Ciel. If he could reduce their numbers, he might stand a chance. He couldn't absorb shadows at this speed, and he couldn't cloak Ciel as well. His mind was at it's limits, searching for an idea when one of the stones hit his shoulder hard enough to force him to fall and drop Ciel, who screamed as she went skipping and skidding to a stop almost a hundred and fifty feet away feet away, a boulder stopping her. She was too far away for Kuro to scan as he stood, but he could tell she was alive... somehow.

"Traitor," Kuro heard a voice hiss from behind him.

"I did what was right," Kuro said confidently, acting as if he thought he could win. He activated his blade and stood in a defensive stance.

A growling female voice answered next, "you always spoke so proudly of how we stood for justice, Kuro. Now look at you, helping a terrorist and standing to fight us. I can't believe I ever liked you."

"Lyca," Kuro kept turning as he spoke, waiting for the first to strike. "I have no regrets for what I've done. NONE OF IT, not as a Neo Arcardian, and nothing since then. I follow what my heart tells me."

Lyca growled again, "I was so envious of General Leviathan. I will bring her your helmet!"

Rolling to dodge, Kuro flicked his wrist to throw it through the chest of Blizzard Yeti who was preparing to throw a spear of ice. Yeti dropped it as he fell back, Kuro threw the spear at one of the enemies he didn't know. The gold armored repliod swatted it away as Kuro snatched his weapon from the ground.

Kuro spotted one of the other repliods advancing on the unconcious Ciel. He charged his ShadowSlash and cut the air, sending the arc through the foe. A stinger pierced Kuro's back and began injecting a computer virus. Kuro swung his sword backwards and cut the torso of Inferno Scorpion wide open, unfortunately only driving him back, not killing him. The virus immediately took hold, slowing his processors and scrambling his motor commands. It took him a moment to figure out what commands were now connected to which finger, 'move left finger' was now 'look up', 'jump' was now 'dodge left', etc. As he dodged around, He had to reset his commands one by one, and with his physical and mental speeds slowed as they were, it was all he could do.

Raging Lyca charged, hand to hand was her specialty, perfect for this situation. Her first blow lightly connected with Kuro's jaw, just enough to knock him off balance, with how unsteady he already was. She grabbed him by the collar of his armor with her right hand and began repeatedly hitting the side of his head, causing his helmet to begin to crack. "I was in love with you from when i first saw you!" She screamed, transfering all of her anger and jealousy from Kuro's loving Leviathan instead of her into her attacks. Lyca released Kuro and kicked him hard, causing his helmet to split right in half. It clattered to the ground as Kuro fell to his knees. "Its over Kuro..." Fefnir raised her leg for an axe-kick, "do you have any last words?"

"I do..." Kuro panted out as coolant trickled from his right ear. In a flash, he stood and drove his hand directly in between Lyca's breasts, grasping her core inside her body. "But they aren't for you to hear." He crushed the core and threw her at Scorpion before she went critical, the shrapenel from her body tearing the exposed circuitry apart. Inferno Scorpion fell as well.

"Only..." Kuro panted as the Virus spread, further slowing his abilities. "two more... gotta hurry..."

The two remaining Reploids were both human-forms, one in gold and the other in red. They both had charged busters poised. The red one spoke, "You don't remeber us, do you Captain?"

"I wasn't a Captain."

"You were once."

A vauge twinge of a memory file in his subconcious told him that he did indeed know the two before him, as well as the one that had gone after Ciel. The gold armor was something he'd seen only once after the Maverick Hunters, "Viper?"

"So you do remember."

"Hammer. And that was Fang, right?"

"This is the second time we've seen you labeled Maverick," Hammer said, "and because of Inferno's virus, it will be the last."

"Exactly," Viper saluted with his free hand, "dodge plasma if you can. Farewell Captain."


	16. Resistance HQ

16 - Resistance HQ

A flashing of colors temporarily blinded Kuro. By the time he realized he wasn't hit, the plasma shots had already been deflected back at their owners. Looking, Kuro was suprized to see Elpizo standing protectively in front of him.

Elpizo looked at his now half melted rapier, "tch, wasn't made to do that I see..." He turned to face Kuro, "Are you alright?"

"How are you here?" Kuro felt dumbstruck.

"Zero sent an emergency burst of your heading and an estimate of where you'd be."

"Zero?" Kuro smiled relieved, "is he okay?"

Elpizo shook his head, "we haven't heard from him since. And there's no sign of him or Fefnir at the transmission site, although we found the remanets of a few Neo Arcadian Reploids."

As if he woke up from a nightmare, Kuro remembered Ciel. He startled Elpizo by suddenly breaking into a sprint towards her. Elpizo however quickly passed him and arrived first.

"I thought you were supposed to be as fast as the Guardians," Elpizo commented as he began examining the young woman in front of him.

"I was injected with a virus during the fight," Kuro explained as he was purely amazed that other than a few flesh wounds, Ciel was just fine. "Its a miracle that she's even alive! She went flying when they caught up and hit me hard enough to throw my balance."

"Indeed, but just in case, we need to get her back to the Resistance Base, she may have injuries we can't detect."

"And I need repairs just as bad as ever, I can feel that virus is still spreading."

Elpizo looked at Kuro, his eyes constantly changing focus as he ran a scan on him. "I estimate you have approximately ten minutes before it reaches any critical systems, we should hurry."

Kuro reached up to adjust his radio to the Resistance's frequency, then remembered that Raging Lyca had broke it. "I need an E-pop."

Producing one from his jacket, Elpizo smiled. He then gently picked up the unconcious human at their feet.

Kuro took it and the three of them appeared at the Transmission Station moments later. Medics quickly took Ciel away and Cerveau briskly escorted Kuro through the base to the Lab. "You took quite a beating to protect Dr. Ciel."

"Her life is more valuable to the future than mine is."

"Every life matters," Cerveau said as he laid Kuro on a workbench, "but I suppose brilliant young minds like hers is what the world needs far more than warriors."

"My thought exactly," Kuro said as he closed his eyes and began putting some of his systems into sleep mode to slow the virus.

"However," the technician's voice suggested another subject was on his mind, "you are terribly unpopular around here."

Kuro almost asked why, but he had been quite an upstanding officer in the Neo Arcadian Army. Whether they were friends or family, he'd personally captured or retired at least one reploid dubbed 'Maverick' that affected every single member of the Resistance.

"And yet," Cerveau began analyzing the foreign program with his scanning equiptment, "with everything you've done to help us since... Well, they may not like you, but they just may yet trust you. Especially with how desperately we may need you soon enough... How very interesting."

"What?" Kuro tried to move, but found himself held by EM plates.

"Don't move, this will need precision and luck. It's nanites, not a virus."

"Shit."

Nanites were notorious reploid-killers. The fact that Inferno Scorpion was able to contain, let alone weaponize, them was an incredible feat.

"This will be incredibly painful," Cerveau warned as he grabbed a high powered magnet and began tightly coiling pure silver wiring around it to boost its power.

"I know."

"I will back-up your CPU and higher-functions onto an external drive, i've seen this procedure wipe systems clean before."

Kuro nodded and felt the icy tenticle of an external connection snake into his mind as Cerveau jacked a cable into the port in the back of his head. The strange feeling of another presence being created, then pulled away passed over Kuro.

"Ready?" Cerveau asked as Kuro heard a high-pitched whine from a machine charging the coil.

Kuro grit his teeth, "as I'll ever be."

The entire wing was filled with pained screams for approximately ten minutes.

Kuro suddenly felt very different... much older, far more experienced. He realized that his forgotten past was beginning to trickle down through his mind. Whatever having barred it's path was erased by the Electromagnetic bursts from the procedure. The trickle grew, it became a stream, a river, a flood, a tsunami.

Cerveau thought Kuro might be having a cascade failure as the dark reploid's eyes constantly changed focus as the mental stimuli were beginning to overwhelm his processors.

Then suddely it stopped. It was all there, everything Kuro had ever done. As much as he was Kuro Shadowhisper, he was once again Shade Kraven at the same time. Tears began flooding from his eyes as he remembered every wrong he'd ever commited, especially those from his time in GigaCity.

"Kuro?"

"I'm fine," he lied, "just a random emotional spike, i think."

"Are you certain?" Cerveau gently grasped the warrior's shoulder, "your neurokenetics were beyond my ability to measure for almost an hour."

"How is that possible?" Kuro thought shocked, "It feels like maybe ten seconds since the pain." He noticed that all of his wounds had been repaired and sealed already, confirming the timeline. Then he smiled at the technician, "Yes I'm ok," Kuro flexed his hands, "can you let me down?"

"Of course, but promise me this. If you feel anything strange, come here straight away."

Kuro gave a thumbs-up and headed for the door. As it hissed open, a gauze covered Ciel stood waiting. "I just wanted to thank you..." The way she left off made it obvious that this issue was not foremost on her mind.

Reading the girl's expression like a child's book, Kuro sighed, "still no word from Zero?"

"Kuro Shadowhisper to the Control Room please!" an Operator announced over the PA.

Ciel and Kuro stood silently looking at each other for several minutes.

Kuro saw tears beginning to form at the corners of Ciel's eyes. Feeling responsible, he strode up to her and placed a strong and comforting grip on her shoulder. "Doctor Ciel Verati, I swear; on my honor as a former Officer of Neo Arcadia, Captain of the GigaCity Defenders, and as a Maverick Hunter; On both of my names, Kuro Shadowhisper and Shade Kraven; That I will find Zero and bring him back to you... On one condition."

Ciel's tear-blurred eyes shone, "anything!"

"Admit it to me. How you feel about him."

Ciel's former reservations about her fellings for the red reploid had been erased by the days events. She stood with her emotions and beliefs affirmed to hold her up, "I love him." She admitted with no hesitation, "I love him with all of my heart."

"Good," Kuro smiled as he turned in the direction that would lead him to the Control room.

"Good?" Ciel was confused by the tone in his voice as he said it.

Kuro started walking away without an answer before stopping halfway down the corridor. He looked over his shoulder, "it's good because of one thing... The fact that _I_ was summoned to the Control Room the moment my repaires were completed means that He was captured, and they are taunting with him."

Ciel covered her hands with her mouth as she gasped. "Why? Why is that good?"

Kuro started walking again.

As he reached the door, Ciel ran after him, she grabbed him by the shoulders and spun him to face her. "WHY IS THAT GOOD!"

"The fact that you love him so much means that you will truely treasure my sacrifice."

Ciel was nearly whispering when she confirmed his words, "Your sacrifice?"

"There will be three Guardians and Copy X himself between us and Zero." Kuro said dismissively, "Do you honestly think that Even with Elpizo and every member of the Resistance at my side..." He forcfully broke Ciel's grip, and left her to figure the rest out for herself.

Ciel fell to the ground realizing that her feelings by themselves may have just issued the death warrents of everyone she'd come to call 'friend'.


	17. Counterstrike

17 - Couterstrike

"Ah," Copy X smuggly observed as Kuro stepped into the room, "So the Turncoat makes it official." The remaining Guardians stood behind him, with their adjutants behind them in turn. Anubis seemed to be missing, and another officer stood where he'd have been.

Kuro had a 'silver lining' thought about the dead officer as he refused to honor the one he now refered to a 'The Lie' with a response to his arrogance. He saw Leviathan shift uncomfortably, which caused him to think, "loyalty has more than one meaning," as he took a place behind Elpizo, as if one of his adjutants.

"So as I was saying," X taunted, "I have him in my custody. And if you all surrender yourselves and all resources immediately, I will release him."

"No, you won't," Elpizo openly challenged, "He's an S-ranked criminal. PROVE that he isn't already scrapped."

"Harpuia!" Copy X motioned.

Harpuia motioned in turn to his own soldiers.

Struggling against his escorts who were dragging him along the ground, a completely bound and gagged, and heavily damaged, Zero appereared in the background.

"ZERO!" a scream of honest terror eminated from the door.

Everyone turned to see Ciel with tears streaming from her eyes.

"Get her out of here!" Kuro yelled as if he was in charge.

"ZERO!" Ciel screamed as she was dragged by two unwilling soldiers, "ZERO! ZERO! ZEEERROOO!"

Once the door closed, leaving her screams as muffled background noise, the discussion continued. "When is his public execution?" Kuro demanded

Elpizo gave a sharp look over his shoulder as if to say, "don't misinterpret your presence here."

"1200 tomorrow," X stood as if already triumphant, "and I challenge you all to try and stop us!"

The feed cut before any member of the Resistance could respond.

After a brief moment of silence, Elpizo pointed perfectly over his shoulder at an Operator, "Recall ALL units! Begin analysis of possible strategies! THE WAR IS HERE!" He began storming off before the Operator could even confirm the order.

Kuro took off quickly after the Leader of the Resistance. "Elpizo!" He called to the unanswering reploid. "ELPIZO WAIT!"

With a very annoyed look, the pink garbbed man waited. The moment Kuro caught up with him, he grabbed the dark warrior and shook him as he spoke vehimently, "This! This is entirely YOUR fault!"

Kuro already knew that, so he didn't argue. He flicked his arm across Elpizo's wrists to break the threatening grip. "I'm offering my help to make that right," Kuro flatly stated. "I've already sworn to Ciel that I would bring him back to us."

Elpizo seemed to consider this, "you know the defenses, what would you suggest?"

The straightforward manner of the question hit Kuro like a wall. "I..." Kuro scrathced his helmetless head as he searhed for a hole in the defenses. "I can think of four possible entry points. But they will probably expect us at all four..."

"What then?" Elpizo's tone of voice suggested that he was almost as desprate to have Zero back as Ciel was.

Kuro searched his memory files thouroughly. He came upon an old Maverick Hunter technique that likely hadn't been used since the beginning of the Elf Wars. "Are you familiar with Hopping?"

It was 0230 the next morning when Fefnir's forces sat guarding one of the possible entry points, the Broken Gate. The red general was leaning against a pillar near the front, sleeping while he could. Fefnir snapped awake, "They're here!" He yelled to his subodinates. All mechaniloids and repliods under his command primed and charged their weapons and scanned every bit of the terrain they could find.

Resistance soldiers all cocked their guns behind the cover of rubble they found as Elpizo nodded at Kuro.

"**FEFNIR!**" Kuro yelled at the top of his lungs.

"Shadowhisper..." Fefnir growled, instantly recognizing the voice. "Hold your fire!"

Hearing the order, Kuro stepped out. In his right hand was what he now remembered as Junia's beam saber, and in his left was a small automatic micro-buster. He knew the gun would be useless against almost all of the officers. However, if he'd wanted to fight the officers with a gun, he wouldn't have chosen an automatic-fire weapon anyways.

At the same time, every gun in the Resistance pointed at Broken Gate and the walls around it.

The sky above Neo Arcadia shifted color ever so slightly as invasion proticals were enacted and the Transmission Screen activated. No one could E-pop away from the city, Neo Arcadia was now an offical battleground. However, something was off. Fefnir seemed to be first to notice it, and he turned to look at the city for confirmation that it was missing.

"Where is it!" Kuro demanded when he noticed the most important part of the Invasion Protical was missing.

"Where's what?" Elpizo asked honestly confused

"GODDAMNIT FEFNIR!" Kuro yelled so he could be heard clearly, even out of most reploids' effective rifle range, "WHERE'S THE ALARM!"

A blue Transmission Stream hit the ground next to Fefnir, "The 'To Shelter' signal will not be sounding today," Copy X stated, "I will not allow you to pass these walls!"

Hundreds of Transmission Streams flashed as they hit the ground, to reveal the Neo Arcadian Army, the Reploid portion alone covered most of the area between the Broken Gate and the rubble the Resistance was using for cover. The Mechaniloids began storming in, whether on foot, or by wing.

"Destroy them," X ordered, "Every single one of the Mavericks must be destroyed for Peace."

Kuro leapt backwards, unleashing a ShadowSlash as he did. He landed behind the rubble as the place where he'd just been was obliterated by rockets and small-arms fire.

"Well," Elpizo grimaced as he fired a rifle he was borrowing from the armory, "I didn't expect they'd make it so easy."

Kuro looked up and saw that the shelling had begun, this was why he picked an auto-fire. He pointed the gun upwards and began firing bursts at the incoming rockets.

"MEDIC!" A yell came from off to the side.

"FRAG OUT!" Came another.

Fefnir prepared to leap into the fray himself when he felt a grip on his shoulder. "What is it, Fairy?"

"This battle," She looked over the fray, "it isn't their strategy."

"What are you talking about?"

"There are plenty of exsoldiers amoung their numbers, but only one of them would have known about THIS access to the city."

"So? Shadowhisper may have known about it, but that doesn't mean he made the plan."

"Stay here, Fefnir," Harpuia's eagle eyes scanned the battlefield, "We will be the first ones able to get out of here if another of their forces try to break in during the confusion."

"That's true," Fefnir realized their point. They had their personal Transmiters, but the rest of the army would have to relay through the Transmission station, which would already have already been recharging from already having to relay the whole army at once.

The chaos of battle filled the air, it reminded Kuro of the Great Repliforce War. He nudged Elpizo as they both continued firing, "Everybody got one?"

"Yeah," Elpizo made a pot shot at Copy X from the extreme range they were at. He scoffed when he saw the blue reploid roll his head to the side to dodge the high-velocity round. "How'd he do that?"

"Please," Kuro shot down another rocket, "I could dodge a shot like that from this range. It wouldn't even be an effort for him."

"I think we've distracted them long enough."

"I agree," Kuro nodded, "make sure to warn them all that the civilians will still be in the streets. The alarm wasn't sounded."

Elpizo ducked back behind the wall, grabbing at his radio. "E-POP! I REPEAT! ALL UNITS E-POP!"

Only the guardians and Copy X saw the flashes of the Transmission streams through the smoke and debris of the battlefield.

"Did they just commit suicide?" Fefnir stood dumbstruck, "The moment those Streams hit the Screen..." He'd seen the read-outs of systems that hit a Screen, he shuddered thinking about all your systems Max-Redlining as the last thing you'd feel.

After a moment, the 'To Shelter' Alarm sounded.

"Who authorized that?" X asked as he radioed the Operators at the Command Center.

"Sir," An Operator responed, "it was triggered at the primary reactor in Section 14!"

Everything but the emergency systems went out in Neo Arcadia, making the 'bright utopia' as dark as the early morning around it.

As of 0312 hours, Neo Arcadia was successfully invaded by the Resistance.


	18. Lover's Spat

18 - LOVER'S SPAT

Fefnir was the first to take off once they realized that even their personal Transmitters were powered by the primary power grid. He leapt into the air and a green streak was left as the only evidence of his direction.

No matter how many time's he'd seen it, Fefnir was always amazed by the speed of his brother when Harpuia was serious. "Damn it he's fast!" He and Leviathan leapt fromt he wall and began dashing through the city in order to catch up.

Copy X motioned for all of the other forces to fan out through the city, "Get the innocents to safety! These monsters have gone too far!"

The Neo Arcadian Army moved as quickly as they could, spreading through the streets, searching for anyone not yet in the shelters.

"And to think that they claim to serve Justice," X spat in disgust, "They go right for the primary life-blood of the city. Such a vile strategy."

Kuro turned as Elpizo took command of the regrouped Resistance forces. "THEY'RE HERE!" He yelled as he had to strain his eyes to keep up with the strike of his avian assailant. Harpuia's speed and power combined into a massive attack strength when Kuro blocked the slashing beam daggers. It caused him to slide for several meters before his feet found enough grip to stop the green Guardian.

"Traitor," Harpuia growled under his breath.

"You guys really gotta come up with some new insults," Kuro flicked his wrists and knocked Hapuia's balence enough to hit him with a glancing jab.

Harpuia's feet hit the ground. "Do you realize how many levels you have betrayed us?"

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"A soldier betraying his army!" Harpuia's attacks were so fast that Kuro couldn't even take his eyes off his opponent to see if support was coming. "A man betraying his people!" The second strike seemed aimed at the saber, not the wielder. "A man betraying his oaths!" Kuro felt his grip being weakened by the repeated strikes. "A man betraying his friends!" Harpuia used both his daggers to attack from opposite directions, casuing Kuro's wrists to buckle. "And a man betraying his woman!" The Guardian of the Sky disarmed his opponent, and kicked him in the chest to drive him to the ground. He saw his prey disappear from sight as he hit the ground. "As much as I disapprove of all of them," Harpuia closed his eyes and focused his senses, "the last bothers me the most..."

Kuro stood on a ledge above and to the left of his opponent, waiting for the moment. He leapt and reached to disarm the most dangerous of the Guardians. He found a pink beam dagger protruding from his shoulder and Harpuia look at the exact spot his eyes were, despite the fact that he was still cloaked.

"Especially when that woman is my sister," Harpuia's quiet rage was clear in his eyes as Kuro's cloak failed because of the damage. "Fairy still loves you," The Neo Arcadian general growled, "for whatever reason that is. But I will end her silly infatuation by ending you!"

Kuro's shoulder was ripped apart when the dagger came out as Harpuia twisted his body for the finishing blow.

An orb of pure light appeared between the two warriors.

"A Cyber-Elf?" Harpuia mused, "living data wishes you to live?" After a moment, Harpuia's face changed, "It's you!"

Kuro scrambled away, clutching his now dead left arm. he snatched up his blade, not bothering to turn around to see who was his savior. He ran several blocks away, then ducked into an alley to catch his breath and assess his damage. He reached down to his thigh where a basic repair kit was strapped. Grabbing a few tools and gripping them between his fingers, he began making the repairs he could. Soon enough, his arm was working again so he filled the hole with FerraFoam, a self expanding and self-hardening agent that would not only close the wound, but act as a weak armor as well. He swung back out and headed as quickly as he could towars the sounds of battle.

When he arrived, the Resistance was getting massacered now that not only the Guardians, but their adjutants as well, were at the battlelines. He made a B-line straight for the officer that had replaced him as Leviathan's second. Both leviathan and the officer sensed his arrival the moment before he struck, but it was a moment too late. Kuro took the head off of Polar Lynx without even being blocked. A lance quickly met his blade. "Hey Sweetheart," Kuro had no sarcasm in his voice.

Leviathan's feelings for Kuro caused her to hold nothing back, in fact, she fought even harder to prevent them from interfering. Kuro however, had her style memorized, so with every little movement of her hands, Kuro saw what was coming. However, he found the scenario was mirrored, as Leviathan read him like a book as well. They bladelocked and found they were face to face, "We won't lose to a rag-tag group of rebels," Leviathan challenged, "no matter who leads the charge! I know how you fight, so I can keep you here while they finish your friends."

Kuro grinned as his blade turned black, "It's true, you know just how I fight. Maybe I should fight like someone else."

Leviathan formed a shell of ice around herself as she leapt away from the ShadowSlash. It shattered her protection and split the shaft of her spear. Leviathan quickly looked herself over to make sure she took no damage.

Kuro had taken advantage of her check for damage and was right in her face when she looked back up. He brought his fist right into her chest and felt one of the structural ribs buckle from the pressure.

Leviathan coughed up coolant. She stood as she spat more out, "I see, so you'll kill even me to get to him?"

"This isn't about us," Kuro removed one of Leviathan's helmet-fins with a swipe of his blade.

Leviathan couldn't read his style at all. In fact, Kuro was almost not even using his sword, it was almost all hand-to-hand. "Who taught you to fight this way?"

Kuro ducked slightly as Leviathan threw a spear of ice at his head. He stayed crouched as he stepped in and in a twisting motion he caught Fairy under the chin with a leaping uppercut.

"SHOURYUKEN!" Kuro caught himself yelling as the woman he loved was sent flying by his attack.

Leviathan had warnings flashing all across her sight as she saw Kuro's outline approaching her in the static that covered most of what she could see."

"You are lucky I'm not the one who I learned to fight from," Kuro effortlessly knocked aside a clumsy, last-ditch attack. He countered by grabbing her vest armor and throwing her into a nearby wall. "If I was Magma Dragoon, you'd be nothing but a smoldering frame... If you were that lucky."

"Ma-agma?" Leviathan teetered between active and emergency standby, "I don't know that name."

"He was the one who taught me what justice meant. What it meant to be a Hunter. And then he betrayed us in favor of the Repliforce."

"You... remember?"

"I do," Kuro turned and scanned for the red armor of his next target, "I need you to survive. After I save my friend, I want you to run away with me."

Leviathan didn't have the chance to respond before her systems forced her into standby in an attempt to protect her higher functions from being fragmented.

Kuro planted a kiss on her forehead "I love you, Fairy." He began striding in the direction he'd spotted Fefnir a moment ago. This time, he was going to kill a Guardian.


	19. Experience VS Skill

19 - SKILL vs EXPERIANCE

(A/N: please excuse any spelling errors, i was wasted when typing this.)

Kuro strode towards Fefnir, despite the turmoil around him, he found that nobody challenged him. As he got closer, he saw that Elpizo was the one fighting the Guardian of Fire, and because of the difference in their battle styles, they seemed to be a match for each other. Kuro rolled his wrist, flourishing his purple weapon as he approached for the kill.

_EXTREME SPEED INCOMING_ flashed across his vision with an arrow indicating left. He dove to the ground, knowing the only thing that could be that fast and still trigger his warnings was Harpuia.

"Brother!" Harpuia scolded Fefnir over the sounds of battle, "You allowed your opponent to approach you from behind!"

"Shaddup!" Fefnir caught Elpizo by the wrist as he dodged a lethal stab, "I was a little busy!"

"I'll dispose of the traitor for you then," Harpuia began to drive Kuro backwards as easily as he had the first time.

Kuro quickly ran his last fight against the Guardian of the Winds through his processors, hoping for an analysis. Against his expectations, he came up with a nearly perfect match of styles from an ancient memory file.

Harpuia's eyes widened slightly when his opponent suddenly seemed to have a read on his movements. "Hmmm, what sorcery is this?"

Kuro regathered himself in a single deep breath. He knew this style, he knew the movements, now he just needed to track the speed. "You know, I've heard the expresion that experiance always defeats skill."

"And?" Harpuia adjusted his stance much like Leviathan had when she first faced Kuro in the Ruins of the Tianna Prison Complex.

"I always brushed it aside. But now, I see what it means."

Harpiua leapt back as he felt the intense heat of a beam saber nearly pierce his chest. He'd barely seen Kuro move, the dark reploid having abandoned everything o his defense into his speed for the attack.

Kuro grinned victoriously, "you even have her openings."

Harpuia quickly scanned his every memory of any female's fighting style for anyone with the minute openings his style had. He came up with nothing, "who is SHE?"

"Maverick Hunter ID No. LH78554, Frostbite Pheonix's 42nd Unit's Aerial Support Specialist, Lance Harpy. She was my friend and the one I'd usually ask for advice for personal matters; and although not in a romantic sense, i loved her. She was my sister-in-arms, and my usual sparring partner."

"Maverick Hunter? You've unlocked your memories?"

Kuro nodded.

"I see," Hapuia changed his stance again to one that was purely defensive, he wanted to get a read on the new Kuro's style before charging into a fight. "So then, that means this as a whole new batlle."

Kuro saw Harpuia's stance and saw what was on the warrior's mind. He also changed his stance in response, putting all of his processing into observing every part of his opponent.

They stood watching each other, despite the war raging around them. The two best wielders of the blade in the fight stood in a perfect showdown.

A bead of sweat rolled down Kuro's cheek, "when?... When?... When?... Now?... Now?..."

Harpuia felt a tension he'd never felt, not even in his sparring against Copy X with the safeties removed from their weapons. This was a life-or-death duel. There was no, "let's end it here for now', it was Now or Now. But he didn't want to miss the sign that would tell him where the opening would be in Shadowhisper's attack.

Two NeoArcadian officers arrived to see this and almost attacked, only to have Wing Deathsickle, Harpuia's current adjutant wave them in the direction of some Resistance soldiers. Wing would see this ended, either way.

Kuro was the first to move.

Harpuia dashed and attacked as well.

All Deathsickle saw was two crossing blurs.

Kuro collapsed, sparks jumping out from his side, "sometimes when you gamble..." he said in a weak voice as he painfully grasped at his partly open torso.

Harpuia turned and strode towards his dark opponent. He raised his left arm and completed Kuro's statement, "when you gamble you sometimes lose."

"But not always," Kuro grinned through his pain. "She would leave that spot open too."

Harpuia finally felt it. He looked down to see a purple beam saber sticking in one side of his gut, and protruding out the other. "When?" He asked as he collapsed to his knees.

"The moment after you ripped me open," Kuro panted as his vision flashed yellow and red from his loss of coolant. "Lance always beat me until i saw her openings AFTER the strike."

"Bravo," Harpuia said with no sarcasim. "A true warrior. Sacrifice yourself to eliminate a massive threat to your army..." Harpuia felt his systems shutting down, "I misjudged you Shadowhisper... Even as you turned, I see that your heart is where it should be..." Harpuia's eyes went dull as conciousness left them.

"GENERAL!" the Neo Arcadian officer yelled as he rushed to his supperior's aid. When there was no response, he deactivated the blade and cast the beam saber aside beginning emergency repairs.

"Hey!" Kuro weakly called to his enemy officer as he fell to the ground.

"What?" the cold and bitter voice responded.

"Leviathan... Isn't dead..." Kuro felt his systems begin to cascade into nothingness. "Save her too... Tell her... I'm sorry..."

Kuro's senses all began to register static as he fell face-down into the dirt. They went as black as his sword did when he charged it. His mind filled with the thought of Leviathan in the outfit she wore off-duty: the free-falling aquamarine har, her t-shirt with the seashell, her white biker's gloves, the blue jeans that sagged and allowed the blue cottons underneath to peek out... But more than anything else, her playful and blissful smile that she only ever showed to him...

With that image on his mind, he felt his Core spinning down into a cold shutdown. "Fai...ry... my...lov..."


	20. Yggdrasil

YGGDRASIL

_Ba-thump._

Kuro couldn't understand it. His core had spun down, but it hadn't shutdown. It wasn't possible for it to supply even enough power to keep itself spinning at such a low output. So, why was he still alive?

_Ba-thump._

He faintly heard the sounds of battle around him through the static of his auditory receptors.

_Ba-thump_.

What was this pulsing? He'd felt it before... But it couldn't be what he thought it was, it had been inactive since he'd merged with it in order to defeat Colonel at the beginning of the GigaCity War.

_Ba-thump._

"So," a voice from Kuro's past echoed, "even after these centuries, you still fight recklessly for your friends?"

"You aren't here," Kuro responded without speaking, "You are in Yggdrasil. The final seal."

"Shade, I am here. I'm the one that stopped Harpuia from killing you."

"You really are X?"

"What's left of me."

Kuro fought to open his eyes and saw a glowing, etheral form. It had X's face, but the rest of him had a vaugley angelic appearence. "Are you keeping me alive?"

"No, but I re-activated your Shadow Drive using Shade's personality data as its primary command source."

"So..." slowly, Kuro's processors began to reactivate, "my mind is Kuro... but the Shadow Drive is Shade?"

"It would be better to say that your heart is Shade. After all, the Shadow Drive is part of your core."

"Why did you bother? My body is failing because of the damage."

"Because, You aren't on the battlefield. You are somewhere you can find replacement parts."

Looking past X, Kuro saw a room with walls coated in reinforced plating. He continued his search and saw a form he recognized. "We're in Yggdrasil..."

"Yes, and your friends are two levels below us, desperately clinging to life. The Neo Arcadian Army has pushed them all the way here, and is forcing them further and further up. Soon they will be trapped in this very room."

Kuro was searching for a supply cache, "Where are the parts?"

"Isn't it obvious?"

Realization hit Kuro and he turned back to face X's Cyber-elf. "No. No! I can't do that!"

"SHADE!" X's voice made it obvious that time was of the essence. "We don't have time to discuss this! Using my parts is the only way you will be powerful enough to defeat my stand-in. Even then I don't know if you can."

"But what about the Dark Elf?"

"You don't need to take everything," X urged him towards his body, "just follow my instructions. Together you and I may just yet be able to set this situation to rights."

"COMMANDER!" one of the resistance soldiers yelled as Fefnir finally landed a definative strike.

Elpizo stumbled backwards. He chest was shattered open, and coolant flowed freely to the ground. "I haven't yet died," he muttered to himself as he moved a hand protectively over his exposed core. "At least like this I won't overheat without my coolant. He readied the foot and a half that was left of his blade.

Fefnir was legitimately impressed by this opponent. He'd been stabbed cleanly three times by Elpizo, plus several glancing strikes. He'd been forced to use everything he'd had. And most of all, even half-dead, Elpizo refused to go down. "I am glad that I was the one to fight you," his voice was purely honest, "It has been an honor."

"It's not over yet," Elpizo gave a hand signal to one of the soldiers behind him.

Fefnir and the four officers with him found themselves stunned for a moment as an ion-grenade burst in between them. All of the Mechaniloids with them were fried. Fefnir fired his cannon at the enemies escaping behind a closing blast door.

Elpizo strode slowly up the staircase.

"Sir!" Colbor grabbed a repair kit from his backpack, "We need to treat your wounds!"

Elpizo pushed Colbor away. "I'll be fine." He hurried as best he could, "we don't have much time."

"Where are you going? This tower will end soon."

"This isn't a tower," Elpizo explained as he opened another door. An explosion below alerted them that the enemy had broken through the barricade. "Its a vault. And if I can get to what is stored here, I can save us all."

"If you insert this board here into your arm, it will give you the power of my original X-Buster."

"Original?" Kuro had already repaired himself and was now trying to get as strong as he could before time ran out.

"Your systems aren't compatible with any of my upgrades."

"I see," Kuro pressed the release on his arm-panel. It popped with the sound of flesh seperating. Kuro slid the circuit board into one of the empty slots. Instantly, he doubled over, clutching his arm as it reformed itself. He flicked his wrist once the pain faded, causing it to change into an arm-mounted plasma cannon.

"Insert the crystal from my buster into the slot of yours."

As Kuro did what he was told, he heard footsteps and turned his new weapon towards the access hallway.

Elpizo froze as he saw the sight in front of him, "You died! I saw Harpuia rip your side off!"

"He saved me," Kuro deactivated the X-buster as he motioned at Cyber-elf X. "I take it they are here?"

"Yes, and this team is all that's left... unless some straglers got away safely."

Kuro picked his blade off the ground. He charged the X-buster.

Elpizo saw this and looked over at the Dark-Elf Prison. "You used X to rebuild yourself?" He sounded disgusted as he strode over to the mostly disassembled Maverick Hunter, "How could you?"

"Becasue he told me to. And X still functions fine, the Dark Elf is still sealed."

"I see," Elpizo sighed, "then we still have a chance."

"What?"

Kuro realized too late what Elpizo was thinking and couldn't stop the rapier from piercing straight into X's Core.

The lights went out as the Neo Arcadian forces stormed into the room. "No," Fefnir gaped as he saw the seals on the vault breaking. "NO!"

"ELPIZO!" Kuro spun the Commander of the Resistance, "WHAT HAVE YOU DONE?"

"Simple," he grinned as the Dark Elf emerged from her prison. "I've given us hope."

Everyone stood silently, looking up at the beast that had caused even more reploid deaths than the Maverick Wars.

"Dark Elf!" Elpizo called out to it. "If you give me your strength, I will give you my substence!"

Before anybody could do anything, the Dark Elf disappeared as it flew at Elpizo.

"So much power. Now I can destroy all humans and form an all-reploid world!"


	21. The End?

THE END?

After a moment, Kuro was able to take in what he saw. Elpizo, who moments ago had been bordering critical and ripped apart, was now in a menacing white armor standing as if he'd never once taken a hit. He was grinning mainacly and holding a plasma rapier. After another moment, he processed what Elpizo had just said, "destroy the humans?"

Elpizo's power-warped eyes met Kuro's, "they are the reason that reploids can't live peacefully! They have consumed all of Earth's resources slowly since they first evolved from the useless monkeyes they are! and most importantly THEY ARE AN INFERIOR SPECIES TO REPLOID-KIND!"

"We aren't a species!" Colbor countered, "We are machines!"

A psychotic chuckle escaped Elpizo, "so funny that one of the cross-bred abominations would say that."

"You leave my mother out of this!" Colbor raised his gun

Kuro pushed it down, "He's far beyond you. He's beyond Fefnir... He's probably even beyond me."

"DESTROY THE HUMANS?" Fefnir wildly challenged. "YOU TRULY ARE MAVERICK!" Fefnir dashed to attack, slowed heavily by his damage.

Elpizo saw the attack in slow-motion. He cocked back his arm and stabbed. The sight that met everyone's eyes stopped the room cold.

A purple blade had pushed the strike so it only grazed the Guardian's shoulder. Kuro pushed Elpizo back and threw Fefnir out of the way. "You're too damaged to be of any use here!"

Fefnir looked at the single being he hated more than all others once he stopped tumbling, "Shadowhisper what are you doing?"

Elpizo stood there staring at Kuro, "yes indeed. What ARE you doing? he's our enemy."

Kuro looked back and forth between Fefnir and Elpizo. He chuckled slightly at himself, "well, i'll be damned. I SHOULD have just let him kill you. But look at it this way... you, Fefnir, stand on the same side as I do here. Humans must be protected, reploids must be saved, PEACE is the objective."

"I'm fighting for peace!" Elpizo flourished his blade, pointing it threateningly at Kuro. "Don't stop me from bringing peace to the reploids!"

Kuro looked with disgust at Elpizo, "Enough talk," Kuro clicked his radio to open-air frequecies, letting EVERYONE in the city hear him. "Under the Authority vested in me by the Maverick Hunters. I, Shade Kraven, AKA Kuro Shadowhisper, declare you, Elpizo of the Resistance, a Type-1 Infection-type Maverick, S-Class combat rating! Special orders are to terminate on sight or flee should you be incapible of fighting him. All combat Reploids acknowledge." After a moment of radio-silence, kuro repeated, "I SAID ALL COMBAT RELPOIDS ACKNOWLEDGE!"

Somehow realizing the severity of the situation, even the Neo Arcadian army soldiers responed.

Elpizo's rage was visible, "do you realize what you've just done?" A dark-aura surrounded him and as it faded, his eyes seemed to be glowering with dark-lights. "You've destroyed the peace i could have created!"

Kuro dug under his vest, not taking his eyes off of the dark-elf transformed monster. He tossed three E-pops to the three remaining resistance soldiers. "take the last ones. I've programmed the destination in for you. be ready for a fight."

"Last ones?" Milan asked, "but what about you?"

"Theres one Maverick Hunter left that can make a difference."

"Zero..." Colbor realized.

"Copy X might be waiting for you. but we need Zero, and someone has to stop this freak. NOW GO!"

Elpizo dove at Kuro at an incredible speed as the resistance soldiers Transmitted, but Kuro was ready. Sparks flew as the two blades of concentrated plasma met. Kuro had seen it in the speed, Harpuia; He'd seen the flexibility and grace in the swing, Leviathan; he felt the strength in the blow, Fefnir... Elpizo had the advantages of all three of the guardians, and he beat Kuro in all three of them as well. "MWAHAHAHAHA!"

The assault was incredible, Kuro was almost unable to block one blow before the next one came up on his warnings in his HUD. Elpizo struck Kuro's defenses hard enough to cause him to spin away. Elpizo had to dive out of the way as Kuro used the spin to bring up the buster and fire. The power of the plasma blast was more powerful than any non-entrenched plasma weapon Kuro'd ever fired and because he wasn't properly braced, it caused his spin to reverse, allowing him to skid as he regained his footing. "Holy shit!" He glanced at the wall behind Elpizo where an entire reinforced plate was turned to slag.

HIs eyes snapped back down and he realized just how in above his head he was. He closed his eyes for a moment, and they switched from green to purple as he'd activated analysis-mode. He knew it was the riskiest thing he'd ever done, because it put 70% of all his systems into analysing whatever he focused on, meaning his reflexes would be slowed.

Elpizo noticed the shift in color, "oh? a mode-shift? you weren't in active-mode?"

Information began flooding across Kuro's vision as he percieved the varied pitching of Elpizo's voice, to each fleck of dust on his shoulder, to the exact frequency that held the plasma of his blade in place, to every whine of his movement servos. His speech was slower than normal, "I was in active."

Elpizo's laugh started almost silently but it grew as he found the situation more and more amusing. "You're using Analysis-Mode! HAHAHAHA! Have you gone mad? you could barely track me before!"

Kuro heard the sounds of the movement servos and leaned away from the strike as movement data now flooded through his processors, he felt the plasma burn the pseudo-skin on his cheek and singe his hair. Hearing the move as Elpizo's body processed it again, Kuro leapt away from a sweeping kick. He closed his eyes and returned to Active-Mode, "I got everything i need now." He took a stance, with a completely calm look on his face, "I'm ready to end your Maverick existance now."

The sound of a plasma-overcharge filled the air and everyone turned to see Copy X. "I'll end both your Maverick Existances." The blast He released was more compact than the one Kuro had fired, but it was so intense that it shone like a star. Kuro's eyes actually had to slide darkening lenses to prevent his visual circuits from frying with the over-stimulation. When the light faded, Elpizo was heavily damaged. However Elpizo merely brandished his weapon, "So the greatest failure of Dr Ciel's life shows his face..."

"I'm not a failure you Maverick," Copy X's eyes kept darting between the two other fighters. "Fefnir!"

"Yes Master X?"

"You and your troops leave, now."

Fefnir's jaw dropped, "But Master X, they are both incredible fighters! You'll need back-up!"

Copy X curled as if digging deep in himself and flashed as he gave a grunting yell and uncoiled himself. His armor had changed to give him a slightly angelic appearence and it resembled something that Kuro had seen long ago after X came back from the battle aboard the Repliforce's Final Weapon. "I need no back-up."

"Ultimate... Armor..." Kuro knew how much trouble he was in, he had seen the combat records of the so-called 'Ultimate X' that his Buster was powerful enough to punch through General's armor, which not even Gradius' pulse rifle would have been able to scratch, and that pulse rifle was made to destroy heavily armored targets. His speed would probably be outside Kuro's reaction time and he was able to use his body as a weapon.

Elpizo rushed Copy X and Kuro flipped back to Analysis-mode, in a desperate attempt to get enough info to even hold his own against such a fearsome opponent. He realized almost too late when Copy X leapt to the side and fired at Elpizo that he was going for a one-shot angle to kill both of them. Diving to his side, Kuro was blinded by the flaring light of the Ultimate-X-Buster and the psuedo-skin of his left cheek was charred by the amazingly intense heat.

Copy X cackled as he realized that he may not have destroyed both of his oponents, but he vaporized Elpizo and left Kuro with unseeing eyes. He watched the Dark Elf fly off, deciding she was a problem for another day. He continued snickering as he strode over towards Kuro.

The sound of footsteps approaching him and the sound of a Buster charging flooded Kuro's auditory receptors. Still being in Analysis-mode, he found that the sounds were clearer than normal.

"Mavericks always seem invincible," Copy X sneered as he stood over Kuro who was slowly getting up, "sometimes they almost are." He grabbed Kuro by the neck and threw him against the nearby wall, still red-hot and soft from the last Buster shot from him.

Kuro screamed in pain. The heat went right through his armor, the body-suit beneath it, and began to cause overheat warnings as Copy X held him against the searing wall.

"you've caused me alot of trouble Shadowhisper... or was it Kraven? I forget which."

Kuro desparetly kicked and struggled. Copy X held fast as easily as if he were holding onto a magnet already stuck to his hand.

Smiling sadistically, Copy X let his Buster spin down and reverted the cannon to his hand. He punched Kuro in the gut hard enough that the Nanites responsible for breaking food and the like down into materials his body could use for its functioning came spilling out his mouth along with some of his dark-red coolant.

Kuro recieved warnings about ruptured and crushed systems in his mind as he coughed from the punch. His head hit the ground hard as Copy X threw him to the ground.

Copy X kicked Kuro's chest and felt some of the structural ribbing in it snap from the impact. He laughed maniacally as more coolant spilled from Kuro's mouth.

Kuro realized something, but was it too late? He rolled slightly, putting his arms beneath him and started to push himself up.

"YOU FOOL!" Copy X roared in dark amusement, "I have you so outclassed that i dont even give you the glory of my Buster to kill you... and yet you still defy me?" He wound his entire body for a kick to remove Kuro's head and end it all and let it fly, only to have his movement stop inches from the dark-clad Reploid's head. His eyes widened as he saw the glow and heard a plasma-overcharge that had been hidden by Kuro's body.

Kuro smirked slightly, knowing his gambit had worked. He knew he had no more energy to hold Copy X, and was using his core's power to do it. He brought his buster to bear, pressed it against the center of his enemy's chest and fired. He fired every ounce of power he could muster from his body, this abomination had to be stopped, regardless of the cost.

Copy X's vision was riddled with warnings of every kind, but they all had one thing in common. No matter what system it came from, they all read 'System Failure'. "n-n-n-n-nooo! impossible! IMPOSIB-"

Copy X was cut off as Kuro used the last of his own functions to tear the struggling and exposed core from the chest of the Neo-Arcadian leader. "you... are... not..." Kuro felt his core spinning down, but had to finish this statement before they both fell into darkness. "Justice..." He squeezed the core uselessly, not having enough energy to crush it and detonate it. All of his systems shut down one by one, leving that memory of Leviathan smiling in her civilian attire as the last thing he'd see.

But little did he know, this wasnt the end for either him or Copy X. In fact, the battle had allowed a certain Exile to not only infiltrate the city, but learn that his original plan could be improved upon. The Cybernetic suit that sustained the infamous scientist hovered over the 'corpses' of Copy X and Kuro for a moment, before collecting both of them and Transmitting away to his lab, hidden hundreds of miles away. His satanic laughing still echoing throughout Yggdrassil a good minute after is departure.


	22. Awake Again

AWAKE AGAIN

Kuro became aware that he was being reactivated .02 seconds before he could speak. But the moment he could, he asked with as much attitude as he could muster, "this is the thrid time ive been brought back from the dead... CAN I PLEASE JUST DIE ALREADY?"

A familiar voice answered the question with an equal amout of attitude, "what? are you THAT eager to leave me alone?"

His eyes snapped open, "Fairy!"

She laid across him and held him tight.

Kuro didnt understand WHY he was in a Neo Arcadian repair facility, nor did he know how long he'd been out. But it didnt matter to him, he had Fariy again. He wrapped his arms around Leviathan.

"Second," She randomly said, kinda killing the mood.

"second what?"

"Second time youve been resurected."

Thinking for a second Kuro realized she was right. "Whatever... but why am I in an enemy repair facility?"

Leviathan sat up, returning to the edge of the workbench as she'd originally been sitting. She looked out the window with eyes that seemed sad. "alot has happened in the year you've been out of it."

"YEAR?"

She nodded, "Dr Weil has been holding you over my head as a reward all that time." Her eyes looked dark, almost soul-less as she slowly turned to look at him. "I've done terrible, dispicible things... all to get you back. but if you knew what i've done, you'll never look at me again."

Kuro found himself at a loss for words. Where was the cocky girl he'd fallen for? He could tell she was still in there from that little quip earlier, but now it seemed like she was gone.

"As for why you're here... Dr Weil rebuilt you both after you killed each other in that fight."

"He brought back Copy X?"

Leviathan nodded, "Master X is not himself either... And, neither are you."

"huh?"

"Run a diagnostic scan." Leviathan brought her hands to her lap and started fidgeting uncomfortibly.

Kuro was still trying to play catch-up, so he did as he was told. It wasn't even 15% done before he started seeing the changes. "my... programing... this code is ...what the hell did he do to me?"

A tear fell from Leviathan's eye.

"Fairy...?"

"You are his puppet now. most of us are, but the citizens are happy with it, so there's little we can do. but you, are quite literally bound to him."

"Fairy, tell me something."

She looked at him, almost afraid. "What is it?"

Kuro reached out and grasped her shoulders, "Do you regret it?"

"eh?"

"Do you regret what you've done? I mean... weighing me versus what you've done... was it wor-"

She silenced him by pressing her lips to his. As she pulled away she looked resolved, "I would have done far worse to even just see you again."

They stared at each other for a minute before a throat being cleared in the doorway puled their attention over to Harpuia, who was leaning against the doorframe with a goofy grin on his face.

Kuro blinked a few times, he'd never seen Harpuia look anything but serious before. Leviathan blushed slightly.

"well," Harpuia shook his head slightly before turning his expression closer to what Kuro was used to, "I was going to say that we need to report-in, but since he's awake, we can wait for him to get dressed."

Leviathan nodded and got up. She looked back at him with the face she would wear when giving orders, "Shadowhisper! On the double!"

Without even thinking about it, Kuro sat up straight, saluted and answered, "YES MA'AM!"


End file.
